The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas has suspended municipal civil registrar Ferdinand Edward Mercado of Alcoy, Cebu after he was found guilty of simple neglect of duty.
Mercado was meted a penalty of three-month suspension without pay, convertible to a payment of fine equivalent to his salary for three months if suspension could no longer be enforced.
His suspension stemmed from an administrative case filed against him by the Field Investigation Office (FIO) of the Office of the Ombudsman after it was found that he had unliquidated cash advances totaling to P68,117.75 as of March 31, 2015.
FIO asserted that Mercado’s failure to submit a liquidation of his cash advances on time is a violation of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code and the circular issued by the Commission on Audit (COA Circular 97-002), requiring liquidation of expenses within 30 days.
For his part, Mercado explained that aside from being the town’s civil registrar, he holds four other positions namely as a public employment service officer, community technical education coordinator, municipal disaster risk reduction management officer, and a member of the bids and awards committee.
He said that he only had one job order personnel to assist him in all his functions, making it hard for him to comply with the legal requirement of liquidation.
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