CEBU, Philippines - All 80 barangays in Cebu City have pleaded to the City Accounting Office to prioritize the processing of their vouchers for payments of utilities to avoid penalties imposed for late payment of electricity bills and also to avail discounts for early payment of the water bills.
The City Accounting apologized to the barangays for delays in the processing of vouchers and explained that there are not enough personnel to process about 200 new vouchers everyday.
In fact, the city accounting has a one-month backlog due to the voluminous vouchers that arrived for processing. City Accountant Marietta Gumia said they are still processing the vouchers dated May 11.
Barangay officials, in a meeting with the Accounting personnel yesterday afternoon, lamented that the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) started charging them the two-percent surcharge for their failure to pay on-time and within the nine-day leeway period.
The surcharge equivalent to two percent of the unpaid bills could not be charged to the barangay funds because the Commission on Audit does not allow it.
This leaves barangay officials shelling out money from their own pockets to shoulder the surcharge.
Gumia, however, said that since VECO started imposing the surcharge, they are already prioritizing the processing of vouchers for utilities which includes the bills for electricity, telephone and water.
Gumia said despite their giving priority to the barangays, everything still boils down to their lack of personnel. They have requested 10 additional examiners but as of now, only two have reported.
She added that most of her personnel, especially those assigned for barangay transactions, are new in the job so there are still some adjustments being made. (FREEMAN)