Wednesday, September 27, 2006
COA: Gov't has P17B in unliquidated funds
MANILA -- Senator Franklin M. Drilon expressed alarm Tuesday over the whopping P17,124,787,532 worth of unliquidated cash advances of the government at present as stated in the records of the Commission on Audit (COA).
Presiding over the Senate finance committee hearing on the proposed P4.6 billion budget of COA for next year, Drilon said, "the unliquidated cash advances of the different agencies of government and the local government units are staggering and worrisome."
"From the National Government, excluding government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), the total unliquidated cash advances is P9,379,342,609," Drilon noted, citing records submitted by COA Chairman Guillermo Carague to the Senate committee.
"From government corporations, the total cash advances, which are unliquidated are P2,664,651,622. From the local government units, a total of P5 billion," he added.
Drilon said the P17 billion can fund the construction of 68,000 classrooms at P250,000 each and can very well address the classroom deficiency in the country.
Drilon said P2.6 billion in unliquidated cash advances were due from public employees and officers while P4.6 billion can be attributed to public disbursing officers who hold petty cash.
"There are collecting officers who failed to remit P1.9 billion worth of collection to the national coffers. Should we not impose strictly the rules insofar as timely liquidation is concerned? Do we withhold the salaries of these cash disbursing officers?" Drilon asked Carague and the other top COA officials who attended the hearing.
"Failure to liquidate this raises questions on the legitimacy of the expense. Because if the expense is legitimate, there should be no question about immediately liquidating," Drilon said.
During the same hearing, Drilon asked Carague to cite moves to recover the unliquidated cash advances.
"They have funds of government in their possession, which they have not liquidated. If only to compel them to liquidate, you should consider withholding the salaries of these people, who failed to account within a certain period of time," Drilon told Carague.
Carague replied that his office already submitted the records to the Office of the Ombudsman and to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for possible criminal and administrative charges against the officials involved.
He concurred with Drilon's suggestion that the salaries of the delinquent employees and officials with unliquidated cash advances should be subjected to "salary deductions" to settle their accounts.
Carague informed the Senate committee that COA rules require that all public employees and officials should liquidate cash advances 60 days after incurring it. (Sunnex)
(September 27, 2006 issue)
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