COA fails to check proper usage of city-owned cars

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) could not determine whether proper usage of the 1,200 vehicles of the Cebu City government is being observed by the officials whom the vehicles were issued to.

This is due to the failure of the city government to submit the required documents to determine the economical and efficient utilization of motor vehicles and the reasonableness of fuel consumption.

Delia Monte de Ramos, COA cluster director for local government units, said that the officials who have been issued with the vehicles failed to submit the monthly reports of official travels and fuel consumption.

The COA Manual on Audit for Fuel Consumption of Government Motor Vehicles provides that the use of government vehicles shall be properly controlled and regulated by way of securing first a duly approved Driver's Trip Tickets which should be serially numbered every end of the month.

 Aside from the monthly report of official travel, the guidelines also provide that the fuel consumption for each of the vehicle shall be submitted for evaluation compared to the distance of the approved travel.

“The economical and efficient utilization of motor vehicle is best reflected by the fuel it consumed for the total distance traveled for a particular period,”  the state auditors said.

However, the required reports year 2012 were not submitted to COA as of December 31, 2012, preventing state auditors to properly evaluate the efficient use of the city's vehicles.

COA learned that the submission of fuel consumption reports was stopped in March 2012 and onwards because the personnel in charge of the work thought that it was no longer necessary.

 The preparation of the monthly report on official travel was also stopped because of the volume of trip tickets required to support its. The state auditors told Mayor Michael Rama to ensure that the city personnel will comply with the law.

The City Council approved P130 million budget for fuel last year. However, the amount was not enough prompting the City Council to approve an additional P15 million for fuel.

This year, the city's fuel budget was P100 million but only P88.9 million is used for fuel because the rest was used to purchase lubricants.

The Property Custodianship handbook of the Commission on Audit (COA) provides that public vehicles should be parked at the government garage after working hours, although these can be brought home if the concerned government office does not have its own garage.

Most of the city-owned vehicles are being brought home by officials.  (FREEMAN)