“Cover-up” in probe of 2007 COA report

City lawmaker Zenaido Rama cries foul over “attempts to cover up” the inquiry on the audit report of the 2007 financial transactions of the city government.
The minority bloc councilor said fellow lawmakers and City Auditor Teresita Irig “were ganging up” on him instead of enlightening the public on questions he raised in a privilege speech regarding the handling of millions of city funds as contained in the 2007 Commission on Audit (COA) report.
The statement of Rama came after the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) session last Friday where Irig and City Accountant Kurt Bungabong were invited to shed light on the COA report.
Instead, Rama found himself being the subject of tirades from among his colleagues regarding figures raised in his privilege speech.
“I could sense, they are trying to protect some people,” Rama said over dyRD Action Line indicating that several names of city officials will be dragged into the multi-million fund mess.
Several times during the SP inquiry, Irig called Rama’s privilege speech as “twisted” and “erroneous.”
To the disappointment of Rama, fellow lawmakers identified with the majority bloc also directed derisive remarks on the issues raised in his privilege speech.
“That was very unfortunate, instead of answering my queries, I became the subject of a smear drive with the intention to discredit my expose,” Rama stressed.
The lawmaker said he was “not satisfied” with the SP proceedings last Friday but however vowed to dig deeper into the audit report mainly on the P6.5 million unliquidated cash advances of city officials.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t care who are those involved in this mess. I have no hidden agenda and I am doing this in the spirit of transparency,” Rama said.
He said more details of the COA report will be revealed to the public.
REVEAL CASH ADVANCES
Kag. Lucio Balbin urged during the SP session that the names of city officials and employees with unliquidated cash advances be revealed.
The city accountant also could not provide the details of the cash advances he claimed some of these accounts were in the process of liquidation.
Kag. Rama likewise inquired why the city auditor did not take note of “lavish, excessive, extravagant and unconscionable expenses” especially on catering for meals at the City Hall.
On the other hand, Kag. Bebiano Inting also questioned why the P2.8 million cost of the geophysical and geosensitivity survey of the proposed Big Bug (sports center) was charged to the account of “construction in progress” when it should have been treated as an outright expense since the project was not pursued.
Moreover, Inting also scored the subsidies to economic enterprises units of the city that have been sustaining losses for the past years. Among the enterprises is the Motor Pool and the Market Operations run by the city which have been reporting losses in the millions of pesos every year.
He said, the subsidies should not be charged to a receivable account since there is no chance of recovering the amount that would in turn “window dress” or overstate the city’s financial statement.
It was however agreed by the SP to endorse in writing the queries raised by Rama to be answered by the city auditor.
For his part, Kagawad Oscar Glovasa, chair of the committee on appropriations asked that pending issues raised out of the 2007 COA report can be addressed to his committee.
OFFICIALS NOT FOLLOWING AUDIT RULES
In a separate interview over dyRD Action Line, city auditor Irig admitted that there are several city officials and employees who do not abide with government accounting procedures.
She said, no matter how often she have been reminding “accountable officers” of their duty to liquidate cash advances, there are still many who do not follow liquidation procedures.
The city auditor said COA is there to ensure that regulations are complied in handling government funds. In fact, Irig said she has been sending demand letters for officials and employees to liquidate their cash advances. However, the COA official failed to bring the list of names of officials and employees who have unliquidated cash advances.
She will be asked to identify these local officials with unliquidated cash advances.
There are specific punishments cited by COA for personnel violating rules and regulations of utilizing funds of the government. The COA report is a public document and any law-abiding citizen can have access to it.
According to Irig, Rama “misquoted” some items in the COA report. She did not elaborate.
However, the COA official explained that “for lack of a better word, I said during the SP session that the privilege speech was ‘twisted."
The COA report which was reviewed by the COA regional office was received by the city government on July 8, 2008.
"We were awaiting committee on appropriations of Kag Glovasa to take it up, but nothing came out, thus, decided to deliver that privilege speech," Rama explained.
The COA Report controversy is not expected to end with last Friday's session with both sides anticipating end-game strategies of the opposing camp.