The Commission on Audit (COA) known as out the Ormoc City authorities over its failure to make use of over P9 million price of economic help from the Office of the President which was supposed to assist victims of Typhoon Odette in December 2021.
In its 2022 annual audit report on Ormoc City, state auditors mentioned that the P9 million monetary help for storm victims was not utilized earlier than it was due for return to the National Treasury on December 31, 2022.
The P9 million is damaged all the way down to P4,702,177 charged in opposition to the Contingent Fund in 2021 and one other batch price P4,397,080 which was additionally charged to the Contingent Fund in the identical yr.
“Further verification disclosed that funds under Batches 1 and 2 were not utilized. Neither were these reverted to the National Treasury on December 31, 2022,” the COA mentioned.
“In a hard copy submitted by the Accounting Office on the composition of the Due to National Government Agencies (NGAs) account under the subsidiary Ledger of the Office of the President, these funds were included thereto with the Remarks stating that the remaining funds are allocated for capital outlay projects per Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund Annual Investment Program for year 2022,” state auditors added.
These capital outlay initiatives for 2022 charged to the P9 million 2021 Contingent fund embrace:
- communications tools (P 6,200,500),
- catastrophe response and rescue tools (P1,498,757), and
- technical and scientific tools (P1.4 million).
COA mentioned this non-utilization of the 2021 contingent fund supplied by the Office of the President to assist storm victims was opposite to the rules supplied in Sections 3.5 and three.8 of Local Budget Circular No. 140, “hence depriving the constituents of the benefits of the rehabilitation and recovery from the effects of Typhoon Odette.”
Local Budget Circular No. 140 supplies that the monetary help to LGUs must be used for catastrophe danger discount and administration, particularly for catastrophe response, rehabilitation, and restoration.
In addition, Local Budget Circular No. 140 additionally states that the particular packages, initiatives, and actions (PPAs) which may be applied must be in keeping with the allowable PPAs prescribed beneath objects 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5 of NDRRMC-DBM-Department of the Interior and Local Government Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2013-1 dated March 25, 2013.
“The delay in the utilization of the fund transfers from the Office of the President for the qualified PPAs before it was due for return on the prescribed period deprived the intended beneficiaries of the benefits that could have been derived therefrom, specifically on rehabilitation and recovery after the devastation of Typhoon Odette. We recommended that the City Mayor direct the heads of the departments responsible, to submit justifications for non-utilization of the funds within the prescribed period,” COA mentioned.
“We recommended that the City Mayor direct the heads of the departments responsible, to submit justifications for non-utilization of the funds within the prescribed period. Also, we recommended that the City Treasurer and City Accountant should prepare the disbursement voucher for the return to the National Treasury pursuant to Section 3.8 of LBC No. 140, the unutilized amount totaling P9,099,257,” COA added.
In 2021, Richard Gomez was Ormoc City’s mayor. He is now a Leyte consultant.
In response to COA’s findings, the Ormoc City authorities mentioned that some flaws within the procurement led to the delayed or non-delivery by the awarded provider of the tools to be procured out of the funds from the Office of the President’s Contingent Fund.
As a consequence, the Service Chief of the Technical Audit Services Group of COA Region 8 who additionally attended the exit convention suggested the administration on the right process to rescind the contract/buy order on this explicit procurement and to blacklist mentioned provider for failing to ship on time resulting in the expiry of the utilization of the fund from the Office of the President.
In addition, the Supervising Auditor suggested the Ormoc City authorities to make representations with the supply company to presumably retain the fund so they may nonetheless use it for the meant function.
GMA News Online has reached out to the workplace of Congressman Gomez, however they’d but to reply as of posting time. — DVM, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
