A MALABUYOC barangay officer and two people’s organizations are growing impatient with the “inaction” of the Visayas Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit (COA) on their complaints against their former barangay captain who reportedly received funds for projects but did not implement them.
Barangay Treasurer Romeo Prayon, Barangay Councilor Susan Dinglasa, Elizabeth Maranga, president of Kahugpongan sa Kababayen-an sa Tolosa, and Dominador Secusana, president of Catagan-Tolosa Farmers’ Association, want their former barangay Captain Fernando Iran to liquidate the P135,000 he received from Capitol.
They told Ombudsman Visayas Director Paul Elmer Clemente that in January 2006, Capitol gave Iran P100,000 for drainage from crossing roads going to Sitio Kambitay to Tolosa chapel.
He received another P135,000 in November 2006 for the repair of Barangay Tolosa Health Center.
They said, “Wala kami nakitang proyekto nga nahimo nga susama sa nakalista (We didn’t see any of the projects listed).”
Maranga, in an interview last week, said she lives a few meters from the site of the supposed concrete drainage project but she cannot recall seeing workers there.
In their barangay general assembly, when they asked Iran the status of these two projects, the official told them he has documents for the projects, but he did not show them.
Sun.Star Cebu called Iran for his reaction and he said original documents were already submitted to COA.
“Gi-audit na man ang mga papeles sa COA,” he said.
He said the two projects were completed.
Iran said he already liquidated the projects before he turned them over to incoming barangay captain Jerico Libradilla.
He said the projects were all completed.
Having no documents to prove, the complainants cannot liquidate the amount released by Capitol in 2006.
Capitol’s subsidiary ledger from January 2005 to December 2013 showed these two projects remain unliquidated. The ledger was printed in February 2014.
This disqualifies Barangay Tolosa from getting another fund assistance from Capitol, complainants alleged in their letter to the Ombudsman in September 2015.
The Commission on Audit (COA) informed them in a letter last November 2015 that the Ombudsman endorsed their complaint to their office and they referred the matter to “fraud audit office” of the COA central office in Manila last Nov. 19, 2015.
Last June, the complainants sent a “tracer” to Ombudsman Clemente.
“Until now our complaints have yet to acted upon,” read the complaint.
At present Iran is a barangay councilor in Tolosa.