Saturday, October 21, 2006
Palace suspends air transport exec over unliquidated money
MALACAÑANG ordered the three-month suspension without pay of Air Transportation Office (ATO) assistant secretary Nilo Jatico for failure to liquidate cash advances amounting to P1.2 million from 2003 to 2004.
Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PGC) chairperson Constancia de Guzman said the suspension stemmed from a complaint of the ATO employees filed against Jatico on July 27, 2004.
De Guzman said the complaint was later withdrawn by the employee, prompting PAGC to conduct a motu propio investigation instead, which established prima facie evidence against Jatico.
She added that the initial recommendation of the PAGC to Malacañang was to dismiss Jatico but Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita amended it to a suspension, noting that after the review, they found that the case is "a simple neglect of duty."
Ermita, in the resolution, said while Jatico had been remiss in properly accounting his cash advances, his belated liquidation has not caused "undue injury" to government.
De Guzman said despite this, Jatico had been "sternly warned that repetition of the same offense would merit a more severe penalty."
Investigation showed that Jatico continued to draw funds beyond the limit set for extraordinary and miscellaneous expenditures of officials.
For an assistant secretary, they are only allowed to withdraw up to P85,000 per year but Jatico, based on Commission on Audit records, had unliquiadted cash advances of P90,961,339.32 for 2003 and P1,191,145.52 for 2004 wherein P425,025.97 was spent on travels. (JMR/Sunnex)
(October 21, 2006 issue)
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