P6.3M fund misused in Consolacion town

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) has found P6.3 million of misappropriated funds in the education program of Consolacion town last year.

State auditors revealed that the municipality’s Special Education Fund was spent by then Mayor Avelino Gungob, Sr. in the construction of the Consolacion Community College instead of using it to support the elementary and secondary education programs.

According to the Annual Audit Report of COA, the municipal government spent P6,337,989.92 in the construction of the building for the Consolacion Community College and in the purchase of the furniture and fixtures.

The utilization of the SEF for the community college was in violation of the Section 272 of the Local Government Code which states that, “the proceeds from the additional one percent tax on real property accruing to the SEF shall be automatically released to the local school board.” 

COA said the SEF should be allocated for the operation and maintenance of public schools, construction and repair of school buildings, facilities and equipment, educational research, purchase of books, and sports development as determined and approved by the Local School Board (LSB).

“Perusal of transaction documents for calendar year 2010 revealed irregular disbursements pertaining to the Community College such as the construction and improvement of school building, procurement of property, plant and equipment, honoraria of teachers, payment of tuition and other fees and book allowance for college students scholars, among others,” the COA report read.

State auditors said that the irregular uses of SEF has defeated the purpose for which the fund was created and deprived the elementary and secondary students of the benefits that they could have enjoyed on the accomplishment of projects that could have been implemented out of the funds.

Also, it was found out that the transactions were lacking of the supporting documents.

The Municipal Treasurer and Accountant justified before COA that they had initially opposed and explained to then mayor Gungob the proper utilization of SEF but the latter continued with the processing, approval and payment.

The Consolacion Community College is already operating and has, in fact, attained accreditation from the Commission on Higher Education. It is currently serving more than 700 college students.

The CHED accreditation was secured recently by Mayor Teresa Alegado. — (FREEMAN)