State auditors disallow P21.5M cash incentives for Cebu City’s barangays officials
Cebu City’s barangay officials, treasurers and secretaries, who received monthly cash incentives last year, have been ordered by the Commission on Audit (COA) to return the money they received from City Hall.
COA’s order to the barangay officials came after COA issued a notice of disallowance on the P21.5 million which the Cebu City government released as incentives to the barangay officials last year.
The notice of disallowance was issued by the City Auditors Office on Feb. 10, 2016 where it questioned the use of the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) as the source of the cash incentives instead of charging these to the city’s Personal Services.
City Hall released cash incentives amounting to P5,000 per month to barangay captains and P3,000 for barangay councilors while P2,000 went to barangay secretaries and treasurers.
The cash incentive was released to its recipients on a quarterly basis.
“The grant of the 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 signed by Cymbeline Celia Chiong-Uy, COA’s supervising auditor in Cebu City.
It was addressed to suspended Mayor Michael Rama together with City Accountant Mark Salomon and City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia.
Salomon received copies of the disallowance which he also sent to the city’s 80 barangays on Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier, government auditors also disallowed the release of the 2015 aid to the barangays amounting to P800 million because of “lack of required authorization” from the City Council.
At that time, City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo assured the barangays that they have legal basis in granting the aid and told them not to return their aid.
But acting Mayor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña is asking the barangay officials, secretaries and treasurers to comply with the audit disallowance; otherwise, she will be obliged to withhold the release of their second quarter assistance from City Hall.
“Pay it back. If they don’t, they cannot get anymore incentives (in the future). When the proposed revised 2016 annual budget is approved, included there are the incentives. How will they be given that if they don’t clear or liquidate it first?” she said in a press conference yesterday.
She said if things were done properly before, these disallowances could have been avoided.
Salomon, for his part, said that the audit findings are not yet final and can still be subject of an appeal.
“We have the legal remedy to appeal within six months. Their ground is more on the propriety of the charging made. We will just justify that the charging is right. It’s under the budget ordinance that it’s under MOOE. It was approved by DBM. They can’t indirectly attack the budget ordinance. We have to file a protest,” he said.
CDN tried to call Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president Philip Zafra and its vice president Joel Garganera for comment but calls were not answered yesterday afternoon.