Ombudsman sacks 6 COA auditors for receiving LWUA bonuses

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal of six auditors of the Commission on Audit (COA) who accepted millions in bonuses from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) from 2006 to 2010.

It was found that LWUA officials approved and signed letters of instruction directing the issuance of checks covering the irregular bonuses for LWUA and COA personnel from 2006 to 2010, totaling P25 million.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said state auditors Juanito Daguno Jr., Proceso Saavedra, Teresita Tam, Corazon Cabotage, Evangeline Sison and Vilma Tiongson were found guilty of the administrative offense of grave misconduct.

The six state auditors and data machine operators Violeta Gamil and Roberto Villa were also slapped with perpetual disqualification from reemployment in government service, cancellation of eligibility and forfeiture of retirement benefits.

The auditors and data machine operators along with COA executives Edna Anical, Thelma Baldovino, Evelyn de Leon, Nestorio Ferrera, Zoharayda Obog, Ligaya Principio, Jesusa Punsalan and Paulino Sarmiento will likewise face criminal indictment for graft.

Meanwhile, LWUA executives Lorenzo Jamora, Wilfredo Feleo, Orlando Hondrade and Daniel Landingin were found guilty of simple misconduct. They were ordered suspended without pay for six months and in case they have already been separated from the service, the penalty is convertible to a fine equivalent to six months’ salary.

Records of the COA Human Resource Office show that Anical received P789,000; Baldovino, P886,000; De Leon, P517,000; Daguno, P615,000; Ferrera, P961,000; Gamil, P834,000; Obog, P658,000; Principio, P642,000; Punsalan, P602,000; Saavedra, P692,000; Sarmiento, P703,000; Tam, P592,000; Villa, P650,000; Cabotage, P542,000; Sison, P183,000 and Tiongson P164,000. 

The Office of the Ombudsman said “the amounts given were huge and arbitrary” such that a COA machine operator assigned at LWUA received as much as P140,000 and P43,000 in November 2006 alone.

Records show that the state auditors each received bonuses twice a month in November 2006, September and December 2007, September and December 2008 and March 2010.

“Their patent disregard of the existing policy of their own institution against the practice of receiving additional compensation cannot be deemed a mere lapse of judgment. Respondents, being state auditors and employees of COA itself, are presumed to know the prohibition,” the Office of the Ombudsman said.

“COA auditors and employees were obviously motivated by malicious intent to favor self-interest at the expense of the public… Their acts are contrary to accepted rules of right and duty, honesty and good morals,” it added.