Capitol: P218 million assistance to barangays unliquidated since 2015

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia discusses before the over 1,000 barangay captains of the province the requirements needed for them to get the cash assistance from the Capitol. | CDN file photo — Rosalie O. Abatayo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Unless they will be able to liquidate the cash assistance previously disbursed to them by the Capitol, barangays in Cebu province may not receive assistance from the province.

This is after Governor Gwendolyn Garcia announced on Tuesday, December 1, 2019, that the liquidation of the prior financial assistance would now be part of the requirements for barangays to request cash aids from the Capitol.

Garcia made the announcement in front of over 1,000 barangay captains during their general assembly at the IEC Convention Center in Mabolo, Cebu City.

As of October 31, 2019, at least P218 million of financial assistance disbursed to the barangays has yet to be liquidated. The disbursement of these cash aids traces as far as five years back or since 2015.

The P 218,422,883.10 unliquidated cash aid in the past five years is distributed in all the seven districts in the province.

Based on the Capitol records, Cebu’s third district has the highest unliquidated cash subsidy at P44,082,498.20 followed by the towns in the fifth district with P39,922,066.44 of unliquidated funds.

Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Cebu Province Chapter acting President Raymond Calderon, however, said the unliquidated funds was not a question of misuse of funds.

In an interview after the assembly, Calderon said most of the barangays find it hard to liquidate the financial assistance because of accounting technicalities.

“Actually, kadagahanan ana makaliquidate man sila. Duna lay mga technical nga aspect maong magkinahanglan sila og tabang. Guide-an lang ba. Naa man nay mga resibo pero ang pag-liquidate lang technical na kaayo for them,” Calderon said.

(Actually, most of the barangays are really able to liquidate. There are just some that have difficulty in the technical aspect that is why they need help and guidance. I believe they have the receipts. It is just the process of liquidating that is quite technical for them.)

Calderon said he was hoping the Provincial Accounting Office would take time in assisting the barangay officials on how to properly account for their expenditures./dbs