CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) has recommended that officials of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) who participated in the illegal disbursement of the P2.3 million for the health benefits of all CPA officials and workers in 2009 be made to refund the whole amount.
COA 7 Director Delfin Aguilar insisted that the granting of medical health insurance to 162 officials and employees of the CPA is contrary to law, even if the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) thinks otherwise.
Records showed that the CPA entered into a one-year contract with MEDICARD Philippines Incorporated to provide a corporate health care program to all CPA officials and employees. The P2,351,754 contract started April 1, 2009.
COA also learned that the CPA also granted the same benefits to its officials and employees in the early part of 2000, but it was stopped with the state auditor’s advice.
But the CPA restored the granting of said health benefits on the basis of the government counsels’ legal opinion that CPA is not covered by the prohibition.
Aguilar said the OGCC legal opinion is contrary to the provisions of Article 9-B, Section 8 of the 1987 Constitution, which provides that “No elective or appointive public officer or employee shall receive additional, double or indirect compensation, unless specifically authorized by law.”
The Department of Budget and Management supported the argument of the state auditors.
“Using government funds for a separate health care insurance, aside from PhilHealth, would mean double provision for the same purpose which is contrary to the principle of prudent spending,” the DBM stated in a letter to COA.
Aguilar explained that COA’s tasks include “those for the prevention and disallowance of irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable expenditures or uses of government funds and properties.”
But because of the conflicting views of the government lawyers and COA, the state auditors are planning to bring up the issue before the court for final resolution.
CPA officials said that the grant of health care benefits to their employees is based on the collective negotiation agreement between the CPA and the CPA Employees Union signed last August 8, 2007.
It states that “the CPA shall continue to provide all its employees an annual comprehensive medical program.”
But Aguilar argued that it is clear that even before the passage of such agreement in 2007, the CPA already granted health care benefits and ignored the state auditors’ advice for them to stop such practice.
“It is noteworthy to state that agreements entered into by the CPA must be in conformity with relevant laws, rules and regulations,” the COA report said.
The CPA officials, however, said they will issue a memorandum for their personnel to refund the amount that they have received. – (FREEMAN)