The Commission on Audit (COA) has questioned the Cebu City government over its failure to settle a loan with the National Housing Authority (NHA).
COA said the P2-million loan received by the city from the Local Housing Fund of the NHA to finance the Kapasar Resettlement Project, Phase I in Barangay Budlaan remains unpaid since the loan was granted in 2006.
The city’s outstanding obligations, including interest, have now reached P2.6 million.
The state auditors said that out of the P2-million loan, only P1.05 million was released to Kapasar members.
COA said they were informed by the City Accounting Office that in September 2014, the city government had turned over to NHA the amount of P950,000 representing the remaining unreleased amount through a Journal Entry Voucher (JEV).
As of November 2015, only P162,532.49 was collected by NHA from the city.
Under the memorandum of agreement, the Kalamboan Alang Sa Panimuyo sa San Roque (Kapasar) will remit payments collected from its members to the city. Each member of Kapasar will pay P316.69 in monthly amortization payable in 10 years with an interest rate of nine percent per annum.
Another agreement between the NHA and the city government stipulates that the funds released by NHA shall be subject to repayment by the city for a maximum period of 10 years at an interest rate of nine percent per annum.
According to COA, the city should have remitted to NHA P153,752 in quarterly amortizations.
“In this case, collections were not done according to what has been agreed to by the both parties. The delay and nonpayment of the beneficiaries also caused delay of payment of the LGU to NHA incurring additional obligation for the delinquency and amortization interest,” COA said.
“Audit verification further revealed that the office in charge of Division of Welfare for Urban Poor (DWUP) made request for condonation of interest from NHA but did not get any reply,” COA said.
The City Legal office said the NHA’s demand letter dated December 2015 and the statement of account had already been endorsed to the office of Atty. Collin Rosell, then DWUP officer-in-charge, regarding the total amortization of Kapasar Resettlement Project.
But to date, there has been no response from DWUP office on the matter.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
