Treasurer to face raps for malversation

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas recommended the filing of a case in court against the municipal treasurer of Compostela, Cebu for malversation of public funds.

Lorenzo Almodiel is accused of failing to account P7.5 million despite demands. It was the Commission on Audit 7 that filed the complaint.

Graft investigator Jess Vincent dela Peña found probable cause to hold the accused for trial. He recommended P40,000 bail.

“There is sufficient ground to engender a well-founded belief that the crime charged has been committed and that the above-mentioned named accused is probably guilty thereof,” stated dela Peña.

In their joint-affidavit, state auditors Barbara Ann Aloba, Nenita Porcia and Quirina Palinawan narrated that in compliance with COA Regional Cluster Office they conducted an examination on the cash and accounts of the accused covering the period of Oct. 8, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

Based on their examination, they said it revealed that respondent had a shortage of P6,574,011.60 and was adjusted to P7,524,011.60 due to the unrecorded receipt of respondent of two Postal Bank Cashier’s Check.

With that, the state auditors said they wrote a letter addressed to the respondent demanding him to produce the missing funds and to explain.

Aside from that, state auditors said they found out that respondent did not deposit all his collections daily or on the next banking day to authorized depository bank.

Finding merit with the allegation of the complainant, dela Peña directed Almodiel to file his counter-affidavit to negate the allegations filed against him.

In his reply, accused alleged that the allegations filed against him was “misleading.” He said the “undeposited” collections have already been deposited. He said the total amount of P1,515,580 has been liquidated on his cash advance.

However, dela Peña said the claims of accused that he deposited the collections were not supported by any evidence. He added the respondent failed to explain the “altercation on the deposit slips covering the deposited amount in the collections of the municipality for the year 2008 as well as the other deposit slips and checks. —/JPM (FREEMAN)