Thursday, September 04, 2008 COA questions absence of landholding records
STATE auditors chided officials of Compostela town for failing to reconcile a land account worth more than P5 million in 2007.
In its report on last year’s transactions, the Commission on Audit (COA) 7 also asked the town government why it failed to reconcile over P1 million in its bank statements.
Town officials, in their reply to the COA 7 report, assured that it will reconcile land accounts “as soon as possible.”
When they verified declarations of real property, government auditors found out that the town government owns 26 parcels of land a with total fair market value of at least P60 million.
But “because of the vague and incomplete description of the above parcels of land, only the land for sanitary landfill can be traced to its declaration of real property,” auditors said in their report.
The town accountant could not provide a basis for the recorded values of other lots because of the absence of records in the previous years, the COA said.
Auditors learned from the municipal assessor, for example, that two lots were donated, but the deeds of donation could not be retrieved.
Donated
COA 7 also said they were informed the ownership of a Barangay Poblacion lot is subject to verification, although the town government temporarily declared it in its
name.
Auditors urged the town’s assessor, treasurer and accountant to reconcile all declarations of real property for municipal-owned lots with the accounting books.
“If the appropriate records or documents cannot be located, request assistance from the Provincial Appraisal Committee in ascertaining the appraised value of municipal-owned lots,” auditors said.
Auditors also said that the town treasurer and accountant should maintain property and real property ledger cards to record the acquisition, description, or disposal of land, to reconcile the inventory report and accounting books.
In the same report, COA also called the attention of the town government for failing to record a bank statement in December last year, which resulted in an overstatement of its cash in bank by more than P1 million.
The town government vowed to reconcile the statements, in replying to COA’s observations during an exit conference. (GMD)
