Council told to write off unliquidated cash advance of dead City Hall staff

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Accounting Office has asked the City Council to write off unliquidated cash advances of deceased city officials and employees.

Lawyer Mark Salomon, the City Accountant, said he has endorsed to the council the book of unliquidated cash advances for its perusal.

“The purpose of this move is para matangtang sa libro katong unsettled cash advances sa mga nangamatay na and dili na sila ma-count as unliquidated cash advances,” he told reporters yesterday.

Salomon said he cannot divulge the total amount of unliquidated cash advances as his staff is still going through with the summary.He said the move only includes the beginning balances in 2006 yet.

Also, to prevent further occurrences of unliquidated cash advances, Salomon said the Office of the Mayor can issue an executive order imposing stricter internal rules on liquidation processes.

He said it could be cited in the “stringent guidelines” the principle of Commission on Audit on withholding salaries of employees who fail to liquidate on time.

“Kon naa’y stringent internal rules, maka-prevent ‘ta ana,” he said, adding that the matter will be tackled in the meeting of the Local Finance Committee for its recommendation to the Office of the Mayor.

Salomon said he will release the list of officials and employees who have unliquidated cash advances by next week.

In its audit report for 2014, COA questioned the city’s unliquidated cash advances amounting to at least P99.9 million by city’s officers and employees for special purposes.

Also, COA questioned another P412 million unliquidated financial assistance granted to different barangays in the city.

Under COA Circular No.97-002, the city government should require officers and employees to liquidate the cash advances at the end of the year and any unexpended balance should be refunded to the collecting officer who issued the necessary receipt.

With this, COA asked the city to improve its monitoring and control measures on the liquidation of fund releases and to stop granting additional fund assistance unless previous ones are settled and liquidated.

Even with COA rules, Salomon said the city will wait for an order from the office of the state auditors to withhold the salary of concerned employees.

He said he has the discretion whether or not to withhold the salary of the person accountable, just like the case of a certain Carlos “Charlie” Reyes.

The issue on unliquidated cash advances first came out during the hearing of the P3.32 billion supplemental budget proposed by the executive department, specifically the case of Reyes.

Salomon said Reyes was granted with P4 million cash advance for the grassroots projects of the city in different barangays involving sports and games in 2012. The amount was intended for the honoraria of officiating officials, food, venue rentals, and prices, among others.

Salomon said Reyes admitted the difficulty in liquidating the amount since he deliberated the documentations with other people.

“Nag problema sa documentation kay gibahin-bahin ni Charlie ang task, unya ang mga tao nga iyang gi-assign-an nangawagtang na,” Salomon said.

Reyes is an administrative assistant detailed at the Office of the Mayor, specifically under the Cebu City Sports Commission.

Salomon said the city first withheld Reyes’ salary in January 2013 after he failed to liquidate any amount.

Reyes appealed to the city to release his salary.

Salomon said he asked Reyes to liquidate some amount of the cash advance before he will allow the release of his salary.

Reyes liquidated over P2 million in 2014, thus, Salomon released his salary. Until now, Reyes is receiving salary from the city government, but he has yet to liquidate over P1.8 million.

With the unliquidated cash advances, the City Council asked the executive department to pursue legal charges against concerned officials and employees.

Salomon, for his part, said the city should exercise due process and send demand letters first before doing that. (FREEMAN)