Sunday, July 20, 2008 Auditors blame flawed system for grim statistic
STATE auditors are blaming the weak internal control at the National Statistics Office (NSO) 7 for the loss of some P224,000 in cash collections during a robbery in July last year.
In its report on the NSO’s financial transactions for 2007, the Commission on Audit (COA) said that during an examination of the cash and accounts of disbursing officers and collecting officers, they found out that transactions were done in open spaces “where anybody can go near their tables while receiving cash from clients, paying salaries or counting money.”
That’s a risky set-up, the report said, considering that many clients come and go to the NSO office.
Other observations made by auditors include:
- The vault where the cash collections were kept was defective;
- The vault can be opened with any key;
- The door of the Civil Registry System (CRS) office was not properly locked; and
- The security guard on duty who opens and closes the steel roll-up CRS main doors kept the key.
The July robbery was the second incident to hit the agency in 2007.
Investigators learned that in February, between P50,000 and P70,000 cash was also lost there.
It was Serbilis outlet supervisor Felixberto Sato Jr. who disclosed the information, adding that he paid for the lost money.
The P224,000 that was reported missing in July was also left in Sato’s custody.
When asked to comment, NSO 7 Director Lilia Tandoc told Sun.Star Cebu that they have not received any memorandum from COA on the findings and that the report was just an audit observation.
However, Tandoc said that three officers accountable for the P223,810 cash collections have already been charged by NSO Administrator Carmelita Ericta.
They are Sato and collector-officers Leslie Sabala and Myrna Cataluña. Tandoc refused to discuss the merits of the case; she also doesn’t have a copy of the replies of Sato, Sabala and Cataña as these have been submitted to Ericta’s office.
“As far as I know, everything is under investigation, and formal charges have been filed already against those accountable,” Tandoc said.
As to the vault, NSO 7 public information officer Noel Rafols, said that the vault is no longer in use because the NSO office in Cebu City has been closed since last year.
COA recommended that the NSO management provide a secure office space and new vault for disbursing and collecting officers, to prevent the loss of government funds and property.
“Management needs to review and improve the existing internal control system to safeguard the assets of the agency,” the COA recommended.
Aside from findings pertaining to the missing P224,000, the COA report also noted that some P203,000 in cash advances to five employees remain unliquidated. They also failed to settle their previous cash advances.
“Some requests for cash advance were not supported with an estimate of expenses and the amounts requested for cash advances are more than the expected expenditures,” the report also stated.
Auditors also found that cash advances or petty cash funds were used to buy various information technology and office equipment.
An undetermined number of unserviceable properties have not been recorded and reclassified as other assets.
To these other findings, the COA auditors recommended the following:
- For management to require the five employees to settle immediately their outstanding cash advances and follow COA regulations, and for the accountant to refrain from processing claims for cash advances unless the previous ones have been settled
- To reclassify obsolete and unserviceable properties and dispose of them immediately. (EOB)
