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Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Treasurer denies link to P1.8M unliquidated fund
By Victor L. Camion
THE municipal treasurer of Bacong denied any involvement and liability into the P1.8 million unliquidated cash advances of unnamed municipal officials.
Necito Zamora, municipal treasurer, issued his position in a report to Mayor Rodolfo Yee dated March 31, 2006.
The report Zamora executed under oath came after the Municipal Government filed a formal charge against him for dishonesty on March 24, 2006 before the regional office of the Bureau of Local Government Finance in Cebu City.
"I never authorized the cash advances," he told the mayor.
Zamora said his liquidation officer Guadalupe Sumagka issued the advances to "influential municipal officials" that eventually ended with him assuming the liability.
He did not name the said officials.
Zamora explained he had filed an administrative complaint before the finance bureau against Sumagka on August 11, 2005 for such irregularity.
"In the course of the fact finding it was made clear that the cash advances were not authorized by me but upon the personal secret negotiation by Sumagka and the ones who obtained them violating the office memorandum I issued," said Zamora.
Moreover, he said, he had also filed a criminal complaint for malversation of public funds against the liquidation officer before the provincial prosecutors' office on January 11, 2006 and an administrative charge before the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas on January 31, 2006.
Zamora said the charge that the Municipal Government leveled against him was complicating his complaints.
"It is now apparent that your formal charge would now instead obstruct me from pursuing the case against Sumagka," he continued.
Reacting to Zamora's report, the Municipal Council passed early this month a resolution requesting the finance bureau to withdraw the formal against Zamora.
The request aims to enable the treasurer to pursue his complaints against Sumagka and other erring employees and to preserve and safeguard the documentary evidences in his possession.
The Municipal Council also requested Bureau of Local Government Finance Regional Director Conception Daplas to certify as urgent the action to preserve the documents in Zamora's hand.
An audit by the Department of Finance on May 2 to 6, 2005 unearthed an unliquidated cash shortage of P1,795,914.29 in the municipal treasury.
The shortage was attributed to the cash advances Sumagka allegedly issued, which violated the provision on prompt remittance of office collections to the municipal treasurer in compliance with the New Government Accounting System manual.
Zamora said Sumagka failed to remit to his office her collections from March 1, 2005 to May 5, 2005.
Instead, he said, she presented a bulk of cash advance documents.
(April 13, 2006 issue)
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