Thursday, August 12, 2004 City Hall wants tighter rules on leaves, cash By Gingging A. Campaña & Rene H. Martel Sun.Star Staff Reporters
“WHEN will we ever learn? This is not the first time the City Government has been hounded by problems of embezzlement.”
With this lament, Councilor Edgardo Labella prodded the Cebu City Council to summon Acting Treasurer Tessie Ca-marillo and other officials to an executive session, where they will take up the loss of public funds to a collector, now missing.
The councilors want Camarillo, City Administrator Juan Saul Montecillo, the city accountant, internal control officer and immediate superiors of Rebecca Mahusay to show up next Tuesday to shed light on what happened.
Mahusay, who went on leave three months ago and could no longer be traced, failed to account for P187,700 cash and an undetermined amount covered by 98 missing receipts.
With Mahusay’s disappearance, section chiefs at the City Treasurer’s Office began installing measures yesterday in the processing of applications for leaves of absence and the remittance of collections.
Collectors at the counters of the License and Fees Division might also be reshuffled this week as part of the preventive measures.
This developed even before Mayor Tomas Osmeña announced yesterday a review of the procedures “to see if there’s a way these can be tightened” to minimize lapses.
Reactionary
Osmeña, however, doubts if City Hall will be able to recover the P187,707.95 and the undetermined amount collected from missing official receipts issued to Mahusay.
Labella, chairman of the committee on laws, ordinances, public accountability and good governance, is a former director of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
Labella noted that instead of a two-pronged approach to prevent collectors and paymasters from running away with people’s money, the City Government’s answer “has always been reactionary.”
He asked why Mahusay was allowed to collect when she was supposed to be a utility worker, and why two months lapsed before her failure to account for almost P200,000 was discovered.
He likewise wondered why Mahusay, despite the missing amount, was allowed to go on leave starting May this year.
Confirm payments
Osmeña and Cama-rillo called on taxpayers who paid their taxes and fees to Mahusay from April to May to visit the City Treasurer’s Office and confirm their payments.
The City Treasurer’s Office needs to know if the missing official receipts, with serial numbers 3344853 to 334950 and 3385550, have been issued by Mahusay to taxpayers.
Liquidating Officer Anya D. Chan of the Cash Receipts Division said yesterday that they are now requiring all collectors to bring with them their “used and unused receipts” when they remit their collections.
This way, they will be able to check the amount remitted with corresponding receipts used.
“Bahala na ug magkaya-mukat silag bitbit sa ilang mga resibo. Maayo pag dad-on na tanan diri aron matan-aw gyud (Having to carry all their receipts will be a burden, but it’s better this way),” Chan told Sun.Star.
Surrender daily
According to the flow chart of remittances submitted by Camarillo to Acting City Attorney Evangeline Abatayo, the liquidating officer should prod the collector to remit and surrender used accountable forms or official receipts to the Cash Receipts Division.
This should be done daily.
In the past, liquidating officers merely verified the last issued official receipt against the summary of collections prepared by the collector, as well as the Daily Statement of Collections and Accountable Forms (DSCAF).
Then, they received the money collected.
“They did away with examining the receipts issued and those not issued. The actual examination could have been a way of checking if there were used receipts that were not turned over.
It is also a way of checking if there are missing stubs.
Stricter rules
But because this is no longer practiced, City Hall did not detect earlier Mahusay’s missing receipts, said a worker at the treasurer’s office who asked not to be named.
Meanwhile, the administrative division of the treasurer’s office is now requiring all division chiefs to sign or place their initials to signify that the employee applying for a leave of absence has been cleared of any accountability.
In existing applications for leave of absence, like in Mahusay’s case, Civil Service Commission Form 6 does not require the signature or clearance of the division chief or the immediate supervisor of the applicant.
This explains why the administrative division had no idea about Mahusay’s accountabilities. The form did not require the signature or clearance of her immediate superior, Juanita Monina Paires.
“But we understood that Mahusay already got a prior approval or verbally informed Mrs. Paires of her sick leave since they are in the same office,” said Evangeline Flores, who takes charge of leave forms at the treasurer’s office.
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