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Monday, July 31, 2006
66% of unliquidated cash from old transactions: COA
By Rene H. Martel
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
AMONG 184 individuals, Cebu City Hall’s former resident ombudsman has the biggest unliquidated cash advances of P1.7 million, state auditors noted.
Romeo Cordova, Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s consultant before his appointment as in-house graft investigator, has since left City Hall and is working in a local university.
The Commission on Audit (COA) said P5.7 million or 66 percent of the P8.69 million in unliquidated cash advances represent balances that remained unaccounted for, after many years.
In 2003, Cordova had his March salary withheld for failing to liquidate the cash advances, taken from the mayor’s intelligence fund and reportedly used for intelligence operations.
He received the amount through a disbursement voucher dated Dec. 5, 2001.
Interviewed that year, Cordova said he already forwarded his liquidation papers to COA Manila because he was told that liquidation for intelligence funds should be submitted there.
“Humana man na (That has been dealt with). I’m so worried that it’s not yet settled because it’s not my fault,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
The accounting office earlier said that despite notices and demands, Cordova failed to submit documents needed to drop him from the list of accountable persons.
COA, in its 2004 annual audit report, identified Cordova among those who did not liquidate their cash advances. He is still in the list in COA’s 2005 annual audit report, a copy of which reached City Hall last week.
It told City Hall to impose sanctions, such as deducting from the employees’ salary the unliquidated cash advances.
COA has an agreement with the Civil Service Office and Office of the Ombudsman for both offices to assist in filing charges.
Not one official, however, has been charged yet.
Included in COA’s list of accountable persons are Mayor Tomas Osmeña (P492,000), former mayor Alvin Garcia (P455,771.23), current City Administrator Francisco Fernandez (P95,262.50), and Vice Mayor Michael Rama’s former administrative assistant Grace Melicor.
Melicor, who failed to account for P149,621, did not return from her US trip in 2004.
Fernandez last Wednesday showed reporters a certification from the City Accounting Office showing he already liquidated the P95,000.
He said the City is going to deduct on a staggered basis the cash advances from the salaries of the concerned employees.
COA noted that like Cordova, several accountable personnel have already retired or are no longer connected with City Hall.
It also noted that some cash advances were granted even if the person still has unsettled balances.
Presidential Decree 1445 states that “no additional cash advance shall be allowed to any official or employee unless the previous cash advance given to him is first settled or a proper accounting thereof is made.”
Fernandez said the City Attorney’s Office is already studying the possibility of filing cases against those who left behind unliquidated cash advances.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 31, 2006 issue)
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