Execs of 17 Cebu City barangays face bleak Christmas

CEBU CITY — What do officials of at least 17 barangays here have in common this Christmas?

A bleak Christmas, according to the Commission on Audit.

Earlier, the COA required all officials of the 17 barangays to prove that they deserved the huge extra Christmas bonuses with which they gifted themselves last year.

The commission gave them six months until last October to do so. But nobody complied.

For the COA, enough is enough.

Starting yesterday, the disallowance which the COA slapped on those extra Christmas bonuses, some of which reached P30,000, became final and executory, and the officials of these 17 barangays can no longer contest the COA ruling, state auditor Cipriano Jimeno said.

Also starting yesterday, the commission began sending demand letters to the barangay heads concerned for them to reimburse the disallowed extra Christmas bonuses.

The 17 barangays are Buhisan, Basak San Nicolas, Kamagayan, T. Padilla, Sambag I, Kalunasan, Kinasang-an, Kalubihan, Sawang Calero, Poblacion Pardo, Tisa, Luz, Sirao, Lorega San Miguel, Tagbao, Tejero and Tinago.

The bonuses ranged from P2,938.20, with which Lorega San Miguel officials gifted themselves, to P30,000, which was what went to the pockets of most officials of the 16 other barangays.

Despite the public outcry against their cash gifts, most of the barangay officials went ahead and expended the bonuses from whatever savings they could draw the money.

Many even went to the extent of using their calamity funds just so they could have bonuses for themselves.

In the case of officials who received the bonuses but are no longer in office, Jimeno said it becomes the responsibility of the incumbent barangay chairmen to find out where they are and collect payment from them.

In the case of those who, while no longer in office, still have uncollected benefits, the government will forfeit the amounts corresponding to their disallowed bonuses, he said.

At least one barangay (Luz), although failing to explain within the COA-imposed deadline, apparently acknowledged the disallowance and proposed a repayment scheme involving salary deductions over 18 months starting last September.

The furor over the Christmas bonuses was triggered by a Department of Budget and Management (DBM) circular issued in November 2001 that allowed barangays to give the bonuses if they could afford them, provided the amounts did not exceed P30,000.

This prompted the board of the city’s Association of Barangay Councils, then headed by Jose Navarro, to adopt a resolution gifting barangay officials the maximum amount of P30,000.

In the same resolution, tanods and other barangay personnel got a Christmas bonus of P3,000 each.

Taken aback by this development, the DBM issued another circular, saying that only up to 55 percent of barangay savings must be expended for the extra bonuses. — Freeman News Service