Thursday, July 03, 2008 Toledo CH fails to reconcile, trace P688M in properties, equipment
TOLEDO City Hall’s more than P688 million worth of properties, equipment and facilities could not be traced because of its defective record keeping and failure to conduct inventory reports.
It also built the new P34.5 million-City Hall building on a property whose title still has to be transferred under the City Government’s name.
These are just some of the defects that state auditors raised in their annual audit report on Toledo City’s financial transactions as of December 2007.
The Commission on Audit (COA) said the balance of property, plant and equipment totaling to P688,202,113.73 could not be traced because the General Services Office’s (GSO) records do not “reconcile” with that of the City Accounting Office.
COA said that city officials failed to maintain property ledger cards, which it said is a clear violation of Section 114 of the national government agencies (NGAs) manual.
COA also noted that some journal entries made to record payment for road repairs and maintenance of property and equipment and purchase of construction materials were recorded as assets “even if they do not extend the life of assets account.”
Accountant
“There were also instances when items purchased are supposed to be capitalized but they were taken up as expenses,” the COA stated in its report.
When reached for comment, Toledo City Mayor Arlene Zambo said the city accountant failed to submit inventory reports due to limited time.
Zambo said documents pertaining to public properties have been lumped even during the previous administration.
But the mayor said they are doing all efforts to correct the defects.
For his part, Rep. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) said he was not surprised at all upon knowing the COA findings.
Garcia said the audit report is just “an official confirmation of what the people of Toledo City have known for more than a decade now.”
Investigation
Garcia also urged the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas to initiate an investigation on the alleged irregularities at the City Hall.
COA said it had already reminded the City Government of the concerns in the previous years for “corrective action” but it remained unresponsive.
Also, COA reported that the executive department failed to provide supporting documents of payables for special education funds amounting to 69.79 million.
Such irregularity violated certain provision of the NGAs manual, the auditors said, which resulted in “overstatement of liabilities and understatement of government equity.”
Likewise, COA scored the City for its failure to transfer the certificate of title of lot where the new City Hall stands.
The Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. donated three parcels of land to settle its tax liability to the City under a compromise agreement it entered into sometime in 2006.
Compromise
But prior to the signing of the compromise agreement, COA said, there was no appraisal made on the land, thus it could not be known if its value matches the total amount of the mining firm’s unpaid taxes.
COA said the City spent over P34 million for site development, building and road constructions even if the City has yet to transfer the title to its name.
“Although the tax declarations of the two parcels of lot were already transferred in the name of the City Government, there was no original certificate of title or transfer certificate of title, which under the law is the best evidence of ownership,” the COA said.
The state auditors recommended that the City Government should closely coordinate with the mining firm for the immediate processing of pertinent documents for the titling of the lot. (GMD)
