City Hall employees‘steal’ P40T checks

CEBU, Philippines -  Four checks amounting to P40,000 allocated for the disbursement of burial assistance were allegedly stolen by unidentified Cebu City Hall employees.

City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said, though, they are not yet certain if the checks were indeed stolen or just got lost in transit from the accounting office to the treasury.

The accounting department, Cuevas said, claimed that the checks were already forwarded to her department since last week.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t receive the checks. Nawala na gyud kay wala man na-register sa among book. We knew it was lost after the claimant asked for it last Friday,” she said.

Cuevas recalled that they had no knowledge about the said checks until last week when a claimant from the Burial Assistance Office asked for it.

The Local Finance Committee, City Treasurer Office and City Legal Office are conducting an investigation to determine who did the possible thievery.

The LFC and CTO have now been checking who made transactions in line with the encashment of the reported stolen checks.

Cuevas pointed out that the culprit could not be identified unless the return check from the Veterans Bank will be furnished to the city, which is expected next month.

City Administrator Dr. Lucelle Mercado said those who did the crime will be sanctioned accordingly by termination and will have to reimburse the amount.

“The city will compel them to pay and they will automatically be terminated for those who will be found guilty of the crime,” she said.

She said, though, that they have to secure yet the result of the joint investigation. She said they are suspecting more perpetrators to be involved.

“We don’t believe that the doer of the crime is only one. It’s not possible nga usa ra ang nihimo ani. We think naa gyud ni somebody else nga involved,” Mercado added.

Following the incident, City Hall is now instituting measures such as the installation of ‘security pins’ in the computers that can only be accessed by authorized personnel, said Mercado. —/NSA (FREEMAN)