The Commission on Audit (COA), the guardian of our public funds, has highlighted and identified as “irregular” the several transactions that Lapu-Lapu City undertook last year.
The transactions that COA deemed irregular were the absence of signatures of eight Typhoon Odette victims and 46 persons who received financial assistance twice, either receiving P5,000 or P2,000, for a total of P221,000, as this deprived the other equally deserving beneficiaries.
It also questioned the purchase of overpriced alcohol amounting to almost P181,000 and payments of P4.751 million for supplies, meals, accommodation and various maintenance and other expenses made through reimbursement instead of direct procurement from suppliers, depriving the City Government of an advantage in competitive prices. (SunStar Cebu)
State auditors also discovered that the cash aid was marked as fully liquidated in the account book of the disbursing officer and in the subsidiary ledger. Ahem, something smells fishy, Mayor Ahong Chan.
According to COA, “the absence of the signatures of the payees on the payroll creates doubt as to the actual payment made to the concerned payees. In case payees could not receive payments personally, they are allowed to authorize in writing, persons specifically allowed by law and regulations to represent them.”
I wonder who the disbursing officer will ask to sign the payroll now that the COA audit team recommended (or ordered?) the City to let beneficiaries sign the payroll as an acknowledgment receipt. Did the eight beneficiaries, who supposedly received the aid without signing for it, really receive the aid? Just asking.
Is alcohol expensive? In Lapu-Lapu City, yes, according to COA. State auditors found that the City’s procurement of alcohol worth P180,779.85 was “overpriced” based on the Department of Health circular, “Price Freeze of Essential Emergency Medicines and Medical Devices due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Heath Event.” Maybe, Mayor Ahong’s trusted people bought the alcohol after the price freeze was lifted.
According to a SunStar report, the trusted people of Mayor Ahong failed to notice the DOH circular. The alcohol purchase violated Section 5 of COA Circular 2012-003, which defines excessive expenditures.
Let me quote the reply of Lapu-Lapu City as reported in SunStar Cebu: “The City explained that during the purchase, it had not received a copy of the said circular. The Bids and Awards Committee also made sure that the purchase of the alcohol was not ‘unreasonably high and excessive’ in accordance with the City’s expenditures.”
“From one supplier to the next, the committee remained attentive to the different prices of the medical supplies and, to the best of their discretion, chose the most inexpensive ones available. Yet, admittedly but inadvertently, they failed to recognize the applicable department issuances due to the urgency of the matter because of the pandemic,” the City said.
What is more telling in the COA report is the City’s reimbursement of purchases of supplies, meals, accommodation and various maintenance and other expenses that amounted to P4.751 million. This practice, according to COA, violates the Local Government Code on procurement that mandates public bidding.
COA has ordered Mayor Chan to stop the practice, and directed the city accountant and city treasurer to ensure that all payments are done in check paid directly to the creditor.