Sunday, October 28, 2007 Fuentes padlocks S. Cotabato accounting office
KORONADAL CITY --South Cotabato Governor Daisy Avance Fuentes padlocked Thursday evening the Provincial Accounting Office after discovering four employees allegedly sneaking out vital documents.
Provincial Accounting Office head Cynthia Barrientos was in Cebu City to receive for the province the award of “Most Outstanding Accounting Office” in the Philippines for 2006 when the incident happened.
Fuentes said the employees, whom she did not identify, might be trying to hide subsidiary ledgers set to be inspected by an audit team next week.
She said she was working in her office Thursday evening when she learned that some employees were still working in the accounting office. She went there to ask the workers to go home and returned to her office.
Back at her office, Fuentes said a security guard rushed to report of an abandoned box allegedly left by the employees.
It contained subsidiary ledgers when they later opened the box, she said.
The governor added she will relieve Barrientos, being the department head, and the employees allegedly involved to give way to an impartial investigation.
In a local radio interview Friday morning, Barrientos said she will abide by the decision of the governor, adding it's the prerogative of the latter.
However, she vehemently denied that unscrupulous activities are taking place in her department.
Before Barrientos left the province for Cebu, she said she has ordered her subordinates to transfer documents from their old to the new office in time for the visit of the special audit team.
"Only the 2007 accounting documents are in the new office and I have instructed my employees to transfer the old files to the new office to make the work of the audit team easier," Barrientos said.
