THE Commission on Audit (COA) issued a disallowance on the P21.5 million which the Cebu City government released as incentives to barangay officials, treasurers and secretaries last year.
State auditors are now asking the recipients of the cash incentive to return the money they received from city hall.
A notice of disallowance issued by the City Auditors Office last Feb. 10 questioned the use of Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) as source of the cash incentive instead of charging this to the city’s Personal Services.
City Hall is giving out cash incentives of P5,000 per month to barangay chairpersons and P3,000 for barangay councilpersons while P2,000 goes to barangay secretaries and treasurers.
The cash incentive is released to its recipients on a quarterly basis.
“The grant of LGU City of Cebu of cash incentives totalling P21.5 million to the following barangay officials is therefore irregular and contrary to the above mentioned laws, rules and regulations thus disallowed in audit,” said the notice of disallowance addressed to suspended Mayor Michael Rama.
City Acountant Mark Salomon had copies of the disallowance sent to the city’s 80 barangays on Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier, government auditors also disallowed the release of last year’s aid to barangays amounting to P800 million because of “lack of required authorization” from the City Council.
Acting Mayor Margot Osmeña is asking barangay officials, secretaries and treasurers to comply with the audit disallowance otherwise she will be constrained to withhold the release of their second quarter assistance from city hall.
Salomon said the audit findings is not yet final and can still be subject of an appeal.