CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government wants the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) to provide a longer grace period if it will insist on imposing surcharges to the City government.
City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said the nine-day leeway for them to process the payment for electric bills is just not enough considering the long process before they are able to release the payment.
From nine days, the City wants to have at least 15 days.
VECO only gives nine days, including Saturdays and Sundays, from the receipt of the bill to settle the payment. Failure to do so subjects the consumer to a surcharge which represents two percent of the unpaid bill.
Accounting Clerk Haidee Consul, who is in-charge of the payment of electricity bills, said that the processing of payment takes at least 14 days, if without hitches.
Just like any government unit, the City Government is not allowed by the Commission on Audit to pay surcharges.
COA said that the government should not be penalized due to the delay. COA holds as liable the person responsible for the delay in the processing of payment.
Poblete said he already talked with the Human Resource and Development Officer to find Consul a partner because Consul is the only person processing the payments for the electricity, water and communication bills.
“Luoy lagi kayo tawon to siya (Haidee) kay siya ra usa. I already told the HRDO to hire her a partner aron duha na sila. But the problem is, we cannot just pull out somebody from the accounting because they also lack manpower at the accounting office,” Poblete said.
Consul has been doing the job alone for 15 years. She said she always asks for a partner but the accounting office always lacks the manpower.
She said that unlike the communication bills and the water bills, their accounts with VECO do not arrive at the same time which, most of the time, causes the delay.
The City has 241 accounts with VECO and seven accounts with another distributor.
Of the 241, 110 are schools account, 76 are traffic lights accounts, 24 are regular offices accounts and 11 are demand offices accounts.
For the month of April, Consul said she has already paid the account for streetlights last May 5 while the due date is still on May 17. The city’s street lights for the month of April costs P9.125 million, which comprised the bulk of the city’s electricity consumption.
Consul said that the payment for electricity bill is now prioritized in all offices. She now puts an orange marking at the voucher so offices where the voucher passes would know that it should be a priority. (FREEMAN)