COA nixes probing Rodriguez missing funds

The Commission on Audit denied reports it is investigating the P422 million missing funds incurred during the administration of Rodriguez Mayor Pedro Cuerpo.

Redentor Ramirez, state auditor IV said that the COA annual audit report on Rodriguez town is not yet over as the municipality just submitted its financial statements and “no exit conference was conducted with management.”

“We are not investigating the alleged, or any missing (or) unaccounted funds. We are not even aware on how the amount (P422 million) was arrived at,” said Ramirez in his report to the COA’s regional cluster director.

Ramirez said that a review of the previous audit report of the municipality showed there is no finding regarding the missing funds.

The COA report came out on March 7 at the height of the suspension of Cuerpo by the Rizal provincial government.

Then acting mayor Jonas Cruz was quoted as saying that he will cooperate in the COA’s effort to trace the municipality’s P422 million missing funds.

According to Ramirez, the alleged COA report could not be substantiated or verified due to lack of supporting documents/ subsidiary ledgers.

The COA official said that “whoever made the allegations in the media got hold of previous years’ audit reports and misinterpreted or even distorted our audit observations leading to the very incorrect conclusion that these were already tantamount to missing funds.” 

When asked for comment, Cuerpo said he had no doubt that COA would declare the allegations unfounded.

“Every peso we receive, we give back to the municipality of Montalban in the form of services.”

People in public positions should not engage in this kind of mudslinging and should instead be more focused on finding ways to serve the people who duly elected them,” said Cuerpo, who returned to his post on Friday after Malacañang intervened on his suspension.

“I had no doubt the truth would come out eventually. I hope we can now move on and start doing our jobs rather than engage in politicking that ultimately leads to the detriment of our people,” said Cuerpo.