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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Consultant who ‘forged’ City Hall signatures fired
By Gingging A. Campaña
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Cebu City Hall officials and employees were baffled Friday over talks that signatures of Mayor Tomas Osmeña and other officials tasked to sign vouchers for payroll and reimbursement claims were allegedly forged.
What confused them more was the alleged involvement of two consultants of the mayor.
One is a member of the mayor’s management team and consultant on financial management and business processes, while the other is Os-meña’s consultant for legislative affairs.
Sun.Star Cebu called up City Hall’s Human Resource Department yesterday but was told that one of the consultants submitted his resignation letter dated Sept. 23.
Sun.Star Cebu tried several times but failed to reach the two consultants, whose names are being withheld pending their side on the matter.
City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said the City Attorney’s Office is still investigating the alleged irregular act of the financial management consultant.
He refused to answer further questions about the case.
When the mayor learned about the incident last Friday, he reportedly ordered the consultant fired and charged.
In a separate interview, City Information Officer Nagiel Bañacia said Emma Compra of the Cash Disbursement Division discovered the irregularity during a pre-audit of all vouchers and verification of the authenticity of the signatures.
Compra showed the mayor the accomplishment report of the financial management consultant, particularly the portion where Osmeña is supposed to sign his approval.
What appeared, however, was not Osmeña’s signature.
“The mayor said, ‘Fire him then file charges against him,’ said Bañacia of the consultant.
Also, Compra presented the voucher supporting the consultant’s check worth P16,000 as consulting fee for August. They noted that a different signature appeared in Box B where Jovy Morelos, assistant city administrator should sign.
Morelos said it was definitely not her signature.
“I really saw the documents unya layo ra gyud kaayo ang pirma ni mayor. Klaro gyud kaayo nga usa ra ka tawo ang naghimo ato (It’s obvious somebody else signed that),” Bañacia said.
Bañacia, however, said they did not know anything about the other consultant’s voucher.
Compra also found out last Friday that a different signature appeared in Box B of another voucher where City Accountant Edna Jaca was supposed to sign.
The voucher was supposed to support the travel reimbursement of Osmeña’s consultant for legislative affairs.
“Anybody in City Hall would know that it was not my signature in that voucher. We all ended up laughing because no matter how that person tried to copy my signature, he really could not do so,” Jaca told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Sun.Star Cebu tried but failed to reach Compra yesterday. Her co-workers said she was on leave.
(September 27, 2005 issue)
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