COA TO MIKE: RETURN P800M
Commission on Audit disallows aid to barangays for violating audit rule
After playing Santa Claus last year and giving away millions of pesos as financial aid to the city’s 80 barangays, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is now ordered by the Commission on Audit in Central Visayas (COA 7) to return the money to the city coffers.
Cymbeline Celia Chiong-Uy, COA’s supervising auditor in Cebu City, issued the “notice of disallowance” (ND) on Feb. 11, 2016 addressed to Rama, acting city accountant Mark Rossel Solomon, acting city treasurer Diwa Cuevas, city budget officer Marietta Gumia and each of the barangay that received the aid.
A copy of the ND was sent to City Hall on Wednesday. The barangay captains also received their respective NDs yesterday.
Some barangay captains have already used up the aid they got, some were kept intact, while some have not received their shares at all, Cebu Daily News learned.
As of end of December last year, the city government has released P564,707,265.50 of the P800 million, as reflected in the record from the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO), a copy of which was furnished to Cebu Daily News.
There were only four barangays that did not receive a single penny, three of which are known bailiwicks of Team Rama’s rival party, the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK): Barangays Lahug, Guadalupe and Labangon. Also in the list is Barangay Kasambagan, a neutral barangay.
The CTO record showed that Barangay Basak San Nicolas, where Rama resides, received the highest aid at P13.25 million, followed by Barangay Inayawan with P11.77 million. Some barangays including Talamban, Basak Pardo, Duljo Fatima, Punta Princesa, Mambaling, Kalunasan, Poblacion Pardo, Sambag I, Kamputhaw and Barrio Luz received at least P10 million each. Most of the other barangays received around P8 million.
Chiong-Uy said the concerned city and barangay officials have six months to appeal the ND, otherwise it would become final and executory, which means they have to return the fund immediately.
The assistance to the barangays has to be returned as the required authorization of the (city council) on the list and cost of projects that were to be implemented was not followed. The COA pointed to the provision in the city’s Appropriation Ordinance No. 2417 (2015 annual budget), which said that before the aid could be released, the concerned barangay should first submit a development plan and ask for the council’s approval for the project that they wanted to use the money for.
Cymbeline Celia Chiong-Uy said that requirement has been emphasized by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and has been in fact a subject of a Supreme Court ruling in December 2008.
The SC decision referred to was a case filed by then Cebu Provincial Board Member and now 6th district Rep. Luis Gabriel Quisumbing against then governor and now 3rd district Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, who disbursed provincial funds in the absence of PB authority.
Tinago Barangay Captain Joel Garganera, the vice president of the city’s Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), said he would need to meet first with the barangay captains to discuss the issue.
“If there’s a finding from COA, we can always settle that,” he said, explaining they could decide on several options, including questioning the ND in court.
Gargera said Barangay Tinago received P8 million, parts of which were used to buy a garbage truck (P1.9 million), a bus (P1.7 million), a brand new Isuzu passenger vehicle (P900,000) and three electronic tricycles (e-trikes) for P200,000 each.
Councilor Margarita Osmeña was not surprised with the disallowance.
She recalled that she and other BOPK councilors have been warning the mayor that he could not distribute the aid without the approval of the city council as it would violate audit rules. Last year, she also received a legal opinion from the Department of Budget and Management that said that the use of the lump sum amount should have passed the council’s approval.
“That’s their problem now. We warned them already before. I even gave a privilege speech about that (in November 2015). Am I surprised? No,” she told CDN.
In 2014, Rama proposed a P640 million budget as aid to barangays as part of the 2015 annual budget.
The city council increased the amount to P800 million under the approved P13.4 billion budget in 2015.
Osmeña said they provided specific provisions to make sure there was no lump sum appropriations but Rama vetoed the provisions that required the barangays to submit a project proposal and for the council to approve it because any fund could be released.
The COA’s disallowance of the barangay aid came on top of an earlier disallowance issued by the state audit body against Rama on the P20,000 calamity aid distributed by the city government to each of its employees in December 2013.
The calamity aid was also made basis of an administrative complaint filed by BO-PK supporter lawyer Reymelio Delute against Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and 12 other city councilors before the Office of the President.
The Department of Interior and Local Government has wrapped up its investigation on the case.
Rama’s critics have been claiming that another preventive suspension was coming against Rama based on the calamity aid case.
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