The administration of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama was recently involved in a controversy over the Commission on Audit’s (COA) adverse report about purchases of alcohol and oxytocin.
The 2014 annual report of the COA was cited in many news reports and commentaries like those of my good friend and City Hall reporter Rene Borromeo of the Freeman.
At the outset, I’m familiar with the procedure of COA. In the event that auditors find alleged irregularities in the transaction of a local government unit, it submits its findings and then holds an exit conference to discuss them with the LGU, which has an opportunity to explain what happened or correct any lapses.
But in this case, the COA released its report on this particular transaction without an exit conference, leading City Administrator Lucelle Mercado to lament that the findings were premature.
It turned out that the alleged overpricing was not true. The amount identified by the COA as an overpriced figure included other items like medicines that were purchased with the alcohol.
The oxytocin was not overpriced as well. Other brands that are cheaper were not as effective and if Cebu city had purchased the lower-priced brand, it would have to use more than one vial in order for it to be effective, based on the expert opinion of doctors.
I think COA is there to help the government, not destroy it by releasing an inaccurate report. In this case, COA apparently intended to destroy the image of the Rama administration.
Nevertheless, Mayor Rama thanked the COA for keeping a watchful eye on City Hall transactions.
COA should be fair in its findings because releasing an inaccurate report could damage the image of the local government unit under review. This time I can’t understand why the COA is silent on the matter instead of apologizing for their error and correcting the report released to the media.
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Allow me to congratulate both the City and Province of Cebu for ranking no. 3 in the most competitive LGUs of the Philippines.
Kudos goes to Gov. Junjun Davide and Mayor Mike Rama for steering both local government units to new heights.
The results were welcome news after the unfavorable and inaccurate findings of the COA on the city government’s transactions.
This is indeed welcome news because President Aquino has not contributed substantially to the development of Cebu and has failed to come up with assistance to both LGUs. It is very important to ask would-be presidential candidates to make a solemn commitment to Cebuanos to assist Cebu in our needs.
I would support a candidate who is open to a shift from a highly-centralized system of government to a federal system for a better future for Cebu and the country.
We should learn from the bitter experience of electing a president who is partial to his political party to the extent of disregarding the needs of Cebu city residents, as when we needed aid in the rebuilding of the Cebu City Medical Center but pleas for help fell on deaf ears. I think President Aquino forgot about it.