Cebu City council bares P29-M cash advances

CEBU CITY — The city council wants 24 City Hall employees to immediately settle their cash advances amounting to a total of P28.9 million.

Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera, of the committee on budget and finance, presented the results of the review done on the city’s trial balance as of Feb. 28, covering the accountabilities of 24 City Hall workers each having more than P100,000 unliquidated cash advances under the city’s trust fund accounts.

Among those who have accountabilities of more than P100,000 are councilor Sylvan Jack Jakosalem with P1,828,400 unliquidated cash advances; Cebu City Transport Commission head Rene Plarisan with P1,567,038.30; garbage collection head Dionisio Gualiza with P743,114.60; and the city health department’s supply division chief, Delfin Felisilda, with P9,909,292.

Nevertheless, Mercy Yu, of the city accounting office’s bookkeeping section, said the cash advances made by Jakosalem and the three other city officials were used in the procurement of office supplies.

This also holds true with other concerned City Hall employees, while others incurred cash advances because they took charge of the petty cash in their respective offices.

"The city accounting office should initiate the necessary steps in order to compel the employees with unliquidated cash advances of more than P100,000 to submit their liquidation and/or utilization report, especially those who are no longer connected with the Cebu City government," Pesquera said in her committee report.

Until now, Pesquera said the committee on budget and finance and the city council have not yet received any report from the city accounting office on whether the City Hall employees concerned were sent demand letters for them to submit their liquidations or refund the amount.

Pesquera told his colleagues in the council that the names of the City Hall employees, who fail to settle their cash advances despite their receipt of demand letters, will be forwarded to the city attorney for legal remedies.

Yu said a new report was submitted to the city council last April but Jakosalem, Gualiza, Delfin and Plarisan failed to submit their utilization reports to the city accounting office.

Plarisan’s recent purchase request was even granted, making his cash advances reach P1,655,438.30. — Freeman News Service