Thursday, July 03, 2008 CH fails to submit records of transactions By Rene H. Martel Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FOR the second straight year, the Cebu City Government failed to submit within the prescribed period its financial transaction records for the year.
Again, it was not issued an audit certificate.
In its report, the Commission on Audit (COA) noted several procedural lapses, particularly in the compliance with the Electronic New Government Accounting System (e-NGAS), on the City’s finances from January to March 2007 only.
The City was also not issued an audit certificate last year because of the same deficiency, after it submitted financial transactions for January to March 2006 only.
Replaced
Last October, or a month after the COA report came out, Mayor Tomas Osmeña replaced then city accountant Edna Jaca with Marietta Gumia, currently officer-in-charge of the accounting office.
Gumia was not available for comment yesterday as she was attending a meeting.
After the COA report was released last year, Jaca had said the City only managed to submit financial statements from January to March 2006 because they were swamped with tasks.
The City, she said, was trying to comply with the e-NGAS, which the City started implementing in 2006.
‘Slowest’
Prior to the interview, the mayor criticized Jaca’s office during a press conference as the “slowest” among all accounting offices in the country, which was why release of salaries also got delayed.
Jaca had said they were slow because of the need to inventory sack-load upon sack-load of ledgers and sub-ledgers for (e-NGAS) database buildup.
In its 2008 audit report on the City’s January to March 2007 transactions, the COA said the August 2006 to December 2007 transactions (except January 2007 to March 2007) “could not be ascertained due to failure of management to submit transaction documents” on time.
The April to May 2006 records were submitted only in August 2007, or more than a year later, while the June to July 2006 transactions reached the COA only in September 2007.
The August to December 2006 transactions were submitted just last January 2008.
State Auditor IV Josette Rodriguez submitted the report to COA Cluster Director Delfin Aguilar, through Regional Cluster Director Helen Helayo.
Aguilar informed Mayor Osmeña of their findings and recommendations in a letter dated May 31, 2008.
In particular, the reliability and accuracy of the City’s P300.67 million in banks could not be ascertained because reconciliation statements were only up to February 2006.
Following their exit conference with City officials and department heads, Gumia told the audit team that the failure to submit on time the documents was “due to the existing problems with the e-NGAS computer facilities, thereby slowing down the recording of voluminous transactions.”
Some transactions, particularly in the property, plant and equipment accounts, still required additional information like vehicle license plate numbers and acquisition dates.
The COA findings also include records of transactions in wrong accounts, resulting in overstatements and understatements.
They include the P25 million collection representing advance payments of real property, amusement and business taxes, recorded under the “due to other funds” in the Trust Fund instead of “other deferred credits” in the General Fund.
Purchases
Purchases of equipment amounting to P2 million that were supposedly recorded under the asset accounts were recorded as debits to the “other payables” as stipulated under the e-NGAS.
The COA also discovered that the City awarded the P4.2 million contract for the repair and rehabilitation of the City condominium without a certificate of availability of funds executed by the City Government.
It recommended that the bids and awards committee see to it that funds are available to support awarded projects “to avoid using or borrowing from other funds.”
In response, City officials explained in a communication dated Feb. 6, 2008 that the condominium was repaired because it was used to house soldiers and policemen from other areas of the country sent to Cebu City to help secure the Asean summit in January last year.
The accounting department also said that the City Treasurer’s Office committed a mistake in the issuance of checks, thus the different journal entries for the first and final payments. (RHM)
