Wednesday, September 19, 2007 LTO cashier fails to show up
THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) cashier who allegedly disappeared with more than P2 million in accountabilities still failed to report to work yesterday to clear her name.
Marissa Abear Veriña is reportedly residing in Minglanilla, Cebu but LTO authorities could not locate her. Her family used to live on Ceniza St., Mandaue City.
LTO 7 Director Alex Leyson created an audit team—made up of Jinky Estrada and Macario Getaruelas—to check all records to determine how much money Veriña has to account for.
Leyson picked the two because they were formerly assigned with the LTO finance division and they know about fund disbursements.
Veriña is in charge of the more than P2-million budget for the entire LTO-Central Visayas. The amount covers salaries and allowances and operating expenses such as payments for bills for light, water and gasoline.
LTO personnel realized something was wrong when they failed to encash their paycheck at Land Bank because of insufficient funds.
Aside from salaries for August, Leyson said LTO also has to settle the bills sent by Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) and the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco).
But Leyson is confident that their operation will not be affected because MCWD and Veco may understand the situation and consider that LTO is a government office.
Records show that Veriña, a business administration graduate, has been working with LTO for nine years already, starting from clerk, bookkeeper to assistant statistician.
She hails from Argao, Cebu.
In her biodata submitted to the LTO administrative division, she named former congressman Simeon Kintanar, former judge Anacleto Caminade and Cebu Provincial Board Member Wilfredo Caminero as her references.
Her original plantilla position is with the Toledo City District Office of LTO, but was detailed as cashier at the LTO regional office effective Aug. 1, 2003.
In her Statement of Assets and Liability (SAL), required under Republic Act 6713, she declared P1.4 million in assets. Her annual salary is P111,816 plus P2,000 in monthly allowances.
Leyson relieved Veriña last week. The cashier did not anymore report for work since last Thursday. (EOB)
