Sunday, July 06, 2008 Mayor: No anomalies committed in my administration By Edmund B. Sestoso
VALENCIA, Negros Oriental -- Mayor Rodolfo Gonzales has declared that there are no anomalies committed under his administration contrary to published reports and aired in several Dumaguete-based media outlets.
The mayor issued the statement after a local paper published a report from the regional office of the Commission on Audit (COA) pointing allegedly on "discrepancies and anomalies" under the present administration.
He said the COA report is a standard thing and that auditing is done yearly.
"There is nothing unusual particularly in the most recent report of the Commission on Audit," Gonzales stressed.
The town executive in fact stated that a letter from COA even admired his administration as one auditor pointed out that, "all transactions and financial statements from the municipality of Valencia are in compliance with regular accounting procedures."
Gonzales however admitted that there are certain facts, which he said are not even considered an anomaly or an irregularity.
He cited as an example, the non-completion of the inventory by a committee whose properties cannot be ascertained and needs to be attended to by his administration.
The mayor said that while the COA wordings are simple, it was made complicated during the publishing of the story to appear that there are big anomalies in his administration.
There is malice in the coming out of the stories, said Gonzales.
He said he is a believer of the freedom of the press and denied insinuations that he is onion skinned.
"I keep my job seriously and as a local chief executive it is incumbent of me nga (that) I maintain integrity because you cannot lead effectively kung wala kay integridad (if there you do not have integrity)," Gonzales said.
"And what is this person doing? Destroying the character of a local chief executive and not only local chief executive, he drags along the character of the whole town," the mayor added, referring to the publisher.
He said that while he himself advocates press freedom, it does not give one or any member of the media to print or air falsehoods.
Gonzales urged members of the media to be responsible enough in doing their job.
"It is their job and it is their obligations to let the people be inform of the truth ug dili mga bakak nga maoy ipagawas (and not publish lies)," added the mayor.
