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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
City financial documents in 'disarray': auditors
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Not only are the cash balances of the Cagayan de Oro City Hall in a mess for the past five years but its storage room for financial documents is in a clutter, government auditors in Mindanao said.
Commission on Audit (COA) Mindanao assistant cluster director Mariano Kintanar said in his report that his office has been having a hard not just reconciling bank and ledger records for the past five years but also retrieving transaction documents for the past three years.
"No sufficient storeroom provided for the safekeeping of all the documents supporting transactions of the City with an average annual collection and expenses of P942 million and P777 million, respectively, for the last three years, thereby exposing to risk of delayed retrieval in case of a court order," the report reads.
Mayor Vicente Emano took over the reins of City Hall in 1998.
COA Mindanao said City Hall's financial documents from 2001 to 2004 are in "disarray".
The mayor earlier castigated media outlets for coming out with news stories on COA reports, saying a portion of the "unreconciled financial statements" happened during the time of his predecessor, Pablo Magtajas.
The same audit report said for five years, from 1998 to 2003, government auditors repeatedly questioned the reliability and validity of City Hall's cash balance for it did not have the required bank reconciliation statements in violation of Presidential Decree 1445.
COA Mindanao admitted it had a hard time reconciling items totaling P83 million.
It said that should any "controversy" arise out of City Hall's financial status, any documents relating to this case would be hard to find.
COA Mindanao said Section 20 of PD 1445 provides that "there shall be in each agency of the government an auditing unit which shall be provided by the audited agency with a suitable and sufficient space together with supplies, equipment and other necessary operating expenses for proper maintenance, including expenses for travel transportation."
In line with this, COA said it is the obligation of City Hall to provide sufficient space to store the vouchers and documents relating to City Government cash transactions.
"In carrying out our function...for preservation of all the vouchers and documents, we observed that the bodega provided by the City Government is not sufficient to store documents covering the last 10 years of City transactions," COA added.
COA Mindanao cited how it had written a letter dated October 9, 2002 to Mayor Vicente Emano discussing the situation of the storerooms provided by the City.
"As of December 31, 2004, the situation has not changed because no other place was given for safekeeping of the additional documents," COA added. It said the stockroom was already congested and documents could not be easily retrieved.
COA Mindanao said there were many instances during the audit that the Accounting Department and the City Finance Department wanted to retrieve certain documents.
However, COA said the two City Hall departments could not immediately provide them because the documents were not properly arranged inside the stockroom.
"The absence of an adequate storage for vouchers and supporting documents hampers the smooth flow of transactions," COA Mindanao said.
City Accountant Wilma Rugay told COA Mindanao in a letter that its request for bigger space has been considered and approved for implementation by Emano.
"The measures, however, to unload existing areas occupied by the City General Service Office (CGSO) and the City Finance Department to pave the way for use of the place by COA have not been implemented," she said.
An initial amount of P200,000 was being appropriated for the cabinets or racks requested by COA, added Rugay.
She added that Emano has instructed the clearing of some areas for COA use.
COA Mindanao, however, said it was not satisfied with what was being done and asked City Hall to prioritize the allocation of a proper storage room for the financial documents.
The City Auditor's Office, according to COA, had proposed a budget of P500,000 for steel racks in the 2005 annual budget. The City Finance Committee and the City Council only approved P200,000 for such purpose. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
(September 20, 2005 issue)
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