Capitol has 275M debt

CEBU, Philippines- The Cebu Provincial Government has P275.21 million in unpaid obligations and the Commission on Audit wants it to already settle the amount, P107.36 million of which remains unpaid for over two years.

State auditors who checked the Capitol’s 2014 transactions said failure to settle the obligations puts into question the existence of the projects to which the amount were owed.

“It was further observed that the items which remained unpaid for over two years are mostly infrastructure and other procurement contracts, non-payment of which for this period already raises the issue of their validity and/or actual existence hence the need to reevaluate each of these items,” COA said.

For its part, the Capitol, during the exit conference, told COA that most of the payables were for the infrastructure projects whose contracts did not have Provincial Board approval when entered into by the previous administration.

Because of this, Governor Hilario Davide III froze the payments of the payables to concerned contractors when he assumed office in 2013. The projects were started during the term of former governor now 3rd district Representative Gwendolyn Garcia.

As an offshoot of its findings, COA recommended that the Capitol “strictly” observe the provisions of the New Government Accounting System Manual with regards to recognition, monitoring and control of payable accounts.  (FREEMAN)