MCIAA funds for ASEAN spent for lawyer's pay

The Commission on Audit wants the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority to run after their employee union's lawyer who received more than P2 million which was meant for the security measures for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.

In its audit report for the year 2005, COA stated that the P2.455-million trust fund deposited at the Philippine National Bank-Mactan Export Processing Zone Branch that was intended for anti-terrorism and anti-hijacking measures was given to the lawyer of MCIAA Employees Mutual Association (MEMA).

"This is viewed as inappropriate as the deposit was a trust fund for the National Action Committee on the Anti Hijacking and Anti-Terrorism," COA said.

The said fund came from P60 taken from every P550 terminal fee paid by passengers for international flights in compliance to an executive order, the money was deposited in a PNB Combo Account as trust fund for NACAHT.

However, a bank confirmation showed that the amount of P2,455,821 was paid to a certain lawyer named Rolindo Navarro, whose services was engaged by MEMA in connection with their claim for back pay, cost of living allowance and other benefits.

COA recommended that management initiate appropriate legal action against the legal counsel of MEMA for the recovery of the amount.

COA also noted certain security lapses in MCIAA's computer system as certain aspects of it's information system were found to lack security measures, risking the exposure of confidential data to unauthorized users.

A team from the Information and Communication Technology Center of COA also said that a disorganized assignment of employee numbers allows the system to accept repeated uses of the same computer-generated identification number.

COA said that there is no document reference number for some employee transactions that will assure the transactions are recorded.

The lack of a disaster recovery plan in case of an untimely bog down of the system was also noted.

It was recommended that management should set up a disaster recovery plan to include testing the approved disaster recovery plan and training people involved.

Management should consider creating this unit as a separate department to establish a career path for its Information Technology professionals to curtail the fast pace turn over of IT professionals and strengthen its IT continuity plan.

MCIAA assured the audit team that the corrective measures will be incorporated into the system. - Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP