COA tells Mandaue to keep eye on Jadewell

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit wants the Mandaue City government to institute controls in the handling and utilization of official receipts of the Jadewell Parking System Corporation following the discovery that the city treasurer's office only rely on the company's reports as basis of the city's 10 percent share of the company's operation.

It has been stipulated in the memorandum of Agreement between Jadewell and the city that the local government unit is entitled to a 10% share from the gross receipts or the total collections from the operation of Jadewell which is to be remitted to the city treasurer's office within the first ten days of every month following the collection of the preceeding month.

However, COA has noted that the official receipts which Jadewell used in collecting fees for the use of parking spaces and towing of vehicles were in the name of the company.

But COA said that before the official receipts could be used, it should be first inspected and stamped by the city treasurer.

But in an interview with a personnel at the city treasurer's office, it was learned that some pages of ORs were stamped in the name of former city treasurer Lorna Atega, but her office also failed to keep the control number of the ORs being reported by Jadewell.

It was also learned that the treasury office only relied on the company's report which is the basis of the city's share as stipulated in the contract.

And since the city failed to exert effort in verifying the official receipt, COA said accuracy of the 10% share of the city's parking collection is not ascertained and COA has recommended the city treasurer's office to verify the correctness of the reports of collections submitted by Jadewell.

COA also found out that when the city was flooded, some of the used official receipts were no longer readable after it was covered with mud as the receipts were only kept in the office of Jadewell.

And since it is no longer readable to the audit team, it had difficulty verifying the correctness of the collections submitted by the company.

With this, COA has reminded the city that one of the basic principles of the internal control system requires that no person should have a complete control over a transaction and there should be a separation of physical custodian ship from record keeping.

As it further requires that an adequate storage space properly enclosed and protected should be provided.

"The government Accounting and Auditing Manual (GAAM) volume III, section 50 provides that "key duties and functions such as authorization, custody and accounting shall be assigned to separate offices and individuals to eliminate opportunities to conceal errors and irregularities."

State auditors also noticed that the city government also lost income totaling to P40,953 after some of the city's VIP's had requested for the release of some impounded and towed vehicles were granted by Jadewell and has therefore waived all the penalties, sanctions, and charges. (FREEMAN)