Thursday, July 31, 2008 COA to Cordova: Better collect housing payments
GOVERNMENT auditors disclosed that Cordova’s failure to collect P1 million from socialized housing beneficiaries from 2005 to 2007 kept it from paying a loan balance of over P900,000 with the National Housing Authority (NHA).
Town officials, in their reply to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) 7 annual report, however, explained it did not yet collect payments for the beneficiaries’ soft loans since the housing project is not yet finished.
The housing project is a joint project of the town government and a non-government organization.
Town officials asked Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu Province, 6th district) for additional funding of about P1 million, which the congresswoman granted in 2004.
The allocation was coursed through the NHA, under the local housing program of Cebu’s sixth congressional district.
The quarterly amortization was supposed to amount to P38,177 at nine percent interest per year.
Under the agreement, the NHA will monitor project implementation and provide technical assistance on policies, including disposition, pricing and cost recovery of the property.
The NGO is tasked to construct the building, while the town government will look for the lot as its equity.
The town will ensure the “immediate titling” of the property in the municipality’s name, as well as its conversion to residential use.
Beneficiaries will have to reimburse the NGO and the town government for the costs of the building and lot, respectively, pegged at P11 per day.
The project started in May 2003 and was supposed to be completed in 2007. It aimed to house a total 84 beneficiaries from Cordova.
But state auditors discovered that the outstanding loan reached over P900,000, while P3,526,000 had been disbursed for site development.
COA 7 also discovered that no titles were secured, nor was any contract to sell finalized between the municipality and the beneficiaries, which the agreement required.
State auditors asked Mayor Adelino Sitoy to order his personnel to prepare the contracts.
Auditors also urged the town government to seek technical assistance from the NHA for pricing and cost recovery, including the titling of the property. (GMD)
