Auditor says: Navforcen has no unliquidated '05 balance

Naval Forces Central in-house auditor Frederick Nograles clarified that Naval Forces Central of the Philippine Navy has no unliquidated balance for 2005.

Nograles said contrary to what was posted on the website of the Commission on Audit, the unliquidated balance of NFC should have remained blank to imply that it has none for that period instead of P898,640.52.

He said the amount was erroneously posted along the line of Navforcen instead of another Navy unit.

Nograles said he recently wrote Lourdes Castillo, the cluster director for Local Governance and Security, through their regional cluster director Dehlia Monte de Ramos, to rectify that particular error as well as other typographical errors found on the table showing unliquidated cash advances of disbursing officers of the entire Philippine Navy.

The said cash advances represent the accounts of officers who have either retired or are on AWOL status and allegedly does not apply to Navforcen.

Nograles asked the director to correct the entries after the Navforcen management called his attention when a story on the information was published by The Freeman last week.

Audit reports are public documents that can be published for the sake of transparency and can be acquired through requests at the COA Office, the concerned agency or just recently through COA's website.

According to Nograles' letter, the said table would have been better understood if the lines under units were numbered as well as the columns.

It was suggested that there will be separate columns for the two types of unliquidated cash advances acquired during 2004 and prior years and those under 2005.

Navforcen is the Philippine Navy Unit operating in Central Visayas. - Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP