CEBU, Philippines - If what opposition councilors are saying is correct, the administration of Mayor Michael Rama violated the law when the City Treasurer’s Office allowed certain personnel to act as disbursing officers in the distribution of cash assistance to senior citizens last Saturday even if they are not bonded.
Presidential Decree 1445 or the Government Accounting and Auditing Manual (GAAM) provides that each accountable officer, including disbursing officers with cash accountability of P2,000 or more, shall be bonded.
A fidelity bond is a form of insurance protection that covers the government or any policy holders for losses that they may incur as a result of fraudulent or dishonest acts of its employees.
The City Treasurer’s Office and the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) were compelled to give huge amount of cash to un-bonded personnel even if it is contrary to law because they already ran out of bonded officers to distribute the cash assistance to senior citizens in 80 barangays of Cebu City.
City Treasurer Emma Villarete explained that the personnel who withdrew the P219.3 million from the bank are all bonded officers.
Mayor Rama had ordered that the distribution of the P4,000 cash assistance to each of the 54,848 senior citizens last Saturday shall be done at the barangays to make it easy for the elderly to claim their benefits.
There were not less than five disbursing officers who served in every barangay to speed up the distribution of the cash assistance, so they needed hundreds of disbursing officers to serve in the city’s 80 barangays.
“Sa kadaghan sa gikinahanglan nga pagador we need to appoint sub-disbursing officers, but the persons who withdrew the cash advance were all bonded. The other sub-disbursing officers were duly authorized and covered by a memorandum order signed by the mayor in the exigency of public service,” City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete explained.
Councilor Margarita “Margot”Osmeña, head of the City Council’s committee on budget and finance, described the situation as very risky as she cited the case in Barangay Guadalupe where the disbursing officers carried over P12 million worth of cash for the senior citizens’ assistance.
“Kakuyaw adtong maong sitwasyon kon ang kwarta gidagan pa sa mga tawo nga dili bonded. Kinsa may mabasol?” asked Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. when the issue was discussed during the budget hearing at the City Council. (What if those who were in charge ran with the money?)
Section 124 of Presidential Decree No. 1445 provides that it shall be the direct responsibility of the agency head “to install, implement and monitor a sound system of internal control.”
The law defines internal control as the plan of the agency or local government unit “to ensure all coordinated methods and measures to safeguard its assets, check the accuracy and reliability of its accounting data and encourage adherence to prescribed managerial policies.”
The amount of bond for the accountable officer shall depend on the total accountability of the officer as fixed by the head of the agency or office.
An official or employee who has both money and property accountability, shall be bonded only once to cover both accountabilities, but the amount of the bond shall be in accordance with the schedule.
The procedure is that the auditor shall demand the presentation by the accountable officer of his cashbook, cash and cash items for examination during or after his duty.
Failure by the accountable officer to have duly forthcoming any public funds with which he is chargeable, upon demand by the auditor shall be prima facie evidence of misappropriation punishable under Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code.
The law further says that “it shall be the responsibility of the head of the agency or office to ensure the proper granting, utilization and utilization of all cash advances in accordance with the law.” (FREEMAN)