The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered several water districts in the country to return P89.95 million worth of “illegal” cash allowance and bonuses after their petitions for reconsideration were junked.
Topping the list of seven water districts is the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) with more than half of the amount or P53.44 million.
The MCWD management confirmed that they received an order from COA but would not release a copy to the media.
“MCWD will file a motion for reconsideration since it believes the said bonuses and allowances were given with a legal basis,” MCWD management said in a statement.
The MCWD’s legal department is drafting a motion to be sent to the COA central office in Manila.
MCWD general manager Ernie Delco defended the distribution of the bonuses.
“Offhand, COA is just doing its job. But the MCWD benefits are pre-existing employee benefits even before MCWD became a GOCC (government-owned and controlled corporation) in 1993. There’s no diminution,” he said.
He also refused to give a copy of the COA order upon the advice of their legal department since the case is still pending.
The report would have shown which bonuses the COA had ordered disallowed. Delco said he will be verifying with their Human Resource Office today.
The other water districts told to return their “unauthorized” bonuses were Leyte Metropolitan Water District (P20.23 million), General Mariano Alvarez Water District (P6.51 million), Dipolog City Water District (P4.75 million), Metro Iloilo Water District (P3.27 million), Zamboanga City Water District (P1.6 million) and Baguio City Water District (P150,824).