Friday, September 21, 2007 Faelnar charged with malversation of funds
GUADALUPE Barangay Captain Eugenio Faelnar faces four separate complaints for malversation of public funds and property worth close to P5 million.
Lawyer Salvador Soli-ma filed two counts of malversation of public property and another two counts for malversation of public funds with administrative complaints for dishonesty and grave misconduct against Faelnar and other barangay officials.
Solima’s complaint was based on an independent auditor’s report signed by Commission on Audit (COA) team leader Carolina Mendez.
It detailed more than P3.6 million worth of properties unascertained for and close to P1.2 million in unaccounted funds.
Ministerial
But Faelnar said this is purely ministerial on the barangay’s part. The COA report was merely detailed observations and cited recommendations for the barangay to correct.
“It’s only a report of the COA. I already talked with the treasurer to make an accounting,” Faelnar told Sun.Star Cebu.
Solima included Guadalupe Councilor Ben Baculi in the complaints for malversation of public property.
The first was on properties labeled “semi-expendable” that could not be ascertained.
Report
The audit report said there were P3,188,912.14 worth of “semi-expandable” properties that “could not be ascertained because the agency did not have the updated property inventory report due to incomplete physical inventory-taking of properties by the concerned barangay officials.”
The second complaint referred to 200 stun guns worth P440,000 purchased by the barangay.
Solima’s complaint said not one gun was found in the custody of the barangay. There was also no document to support that they were issued to anybody, except for two that were issued to the city jail warden.
“There are memorandum receipts and acknowledgements. There’s no more problem,” Faelnar said. The documents were already prepared for submission to COA, he said.
On the complaint for public funds, Solima implicated the barangay treasurer for the “unreconciled difference of P712,449.64 between the barangay and city treasurer’s record as of Dec. 31, 2005.”
The other complaint of the same nature impleaded former barangay treasurer Violette Saguin for various “unrecorded and undeposited collections amounting to P479,987.”
Faelnar said some of these were cash advances from the gender and development (GAD) funds.
He said accountings by the barangay officials are already in place.
“If he (Solima) is really religious about this and checks all COA reports, it’s possible he would sue all barangays,” Faelnar said.
He believes the complaints were election-related considering that he has been at the receiving end of at least two other complaints that Solima filed in previous years.
All the complaints, Faelnar said, were filed during election season.
The barangay elections are scheduled on Oct. 31. (JGA)
