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Friday, August 26, 2005
Seized luxury cars, washing machines, refs lost
The Commission on Audit (COA) listed dozens of Japanese and Korean used luxury cars as among seized goods that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu failed to dispose of last year.
But Port of Cebu District Collector Ma. Lourdes V. Mangaoang is having a hard time collating records because her predecessor, Billy Bibit, did not turn over inventory reports when she assumed office last May.
Chief Insp. Fennymore Jaudian of the Inter-Agency Anti-Arson Task Force also wants an inventory of the items left.
The task force led by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is looking into the fire that hit the customs warehouse at Cebu International Port last July 31.
A new inventory of seized goods may help them in their investigation.
A bidding of some of the seized goods scheduled this week would have given P30 million in proceeds, but all the goods were burned.
A summary of seized goods pending forfeiture, as submitted by state auditors Leila Domantay and Natividad Abellana, included 18 used Korean vehicles, 50 right-hand-drive (RHD) Japanese vehicles, five other Korean cars, five scooters, 11 motorcycles, 83 washing machines, 58 refrigerators, used clothing, spare parts, tires and artificial sugar.
Most of the Japanese vehicles were Mazda, Mitsubishi Pajero, Toyota Prado, Nissan Terrano, Toyota Surf, Isuzu Bighorn, Mitsubishi Space Gear, Nissan Regulus and Nissan Safari units.
COA noted that most of the seized goods were not given appraisal values, so, the government has no way of knowing if reasonable prices were charged for auctioned goods in the past years.
In the 2001 audit, state auditor Veronica Calustre noted that seized or abandoned goods were not recorded in the agency’s books, contrary to Section 461 of the Government Accounting and Auditing Manual.
The BOC’s control over these properties remained weak because of this flaw.
COA recommended for the BOC to keep books of seized goods with remarks on how these were disposed of, or why these remained in customs custody.
During the previous district collectors from 2001 to April 2005, an undetermined volume of seized goods was not listed in the BOC books, so COA auditors failed to trace them during audit sessions.
These created an opportunity for smugglers and unscrupulous customs personnel to spirit out untaxed shipments from the Cebu International Port. (EOB)
(August 26, 2005 issue)
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