COA scores Pavia mayor for pics in town calendar, school supplies
Mayor Arcadio Gorriceta
Top officials of the Municipality of Pavia starting off from Mayor Arcadio Gorriceta to town engineer Ronilo Guillem have a lot of explaining to do with government auditors. Such, as official transactions and municipal government expense have been deemed questionable, irregular and illegal in a post audit conducted by a team from the Commission on Audit (COA).
Alongside the duo, one top mayor's aide with P620,000 in cash advances was found liable for "misuse, abuse and possible loss of government funds." Same concern on the officials and employees behind the disbursement of the town's petty cash fund, the Local School Board and the town's Bids and Awards Committee (BAC).
For starters, Mayor Gorriceta has to justify P109,906.96 in expenses charged to the town's coffers found by COA "not intended for public purposes... thus resulting in misuse of government funds."
The amount was topped by the P69, 394.41 expense for last year's town fiesta covering payment to a make-up artist, corsage, costumes and stage décor among others. It was followed by P35,012.55 printing expense for 3,500 sets of 2005 calendars.
The calendars as originally proposed was part of Pavia's tax campaign that should have "Please pay your taxes promptly" reminder. However, the COA as per ocular inspection found out no such message was included and instead, only the pictures of Mayor Gorriceta was seen with the town's Church and town hall.
Simply put, government auditors ruled, "The printing of 3,500 sets of 2005 calendars did not serve the purpose of the campaign."
Same contention on whole page advertisements in the souvenir program of the Municipality of San Dionisio where again, Mayor Gorriceta and the other town officials had their photos published. For COA, such expense only catered to the publicity of the concerned municipal officials "rather than the municipality as haven of commerce."
"We recommend that the municipality stop the practice of incurring expenses for activities which are not for public purposes and will not redound to the benefit of the constituents of Pavia," the COA wrote in its report.
Questions were also raised on the handling of infrastructure project of over P.6 million wherein payment were made out of the town's collections, one clear illegal practice deemed by the Commission as way of "exposing government funds to misuse, abuse and possible loss."
As per COA validation, the acting town treasurer turned over the amount to an Executive Assistant IV instead of depositing the money to the bank.
The purpose may be noble, COA noted, yet government prescribed procedures must at all times be followed. And have documents ready, the audit team further stated, such as accompanying programs of work, bill of materials and approved plans.
Restrictions were also suggested by government auditors on phone bills incurred under the Mayor's Office. As practiced in the past year, COA discovered wanton use of the phone that was charged to the town's coffers.
"The statements of account for the billing periods revealed that telephone bills are for the telephone line 329-7220 Office of the Mayor. More than 50% of the charges for each billing period is identified with long distance calls," the report went.
Meantime, Engineer Guillem had to refund P31,460 gasoline expense paid for by the town with COA pointing out the municipality's thirteen government vehicles that should have been used and not his private service vehicle.
And more questions on the use of Petty Cash Fund where payments were made minus accompanying vouchers "thus weakens the monitoring and identification of accountable officer for disbursements from Petty Cash Fund."
When checked it was discovered that recurring payments and petty expenses of the town was made that are personal in nature. The records showed calling cards, fruit drinks, cookies, native food delicacies, softdrinks, coffee and radio greetings.
"This practice resulted in misuse and abuse of government funds," the COA wrote.
As for the Local School Board, the COA was back to Mayor Gorriceta again and questioned over P65,000 in expense for the purchase of notebook covers and over P183,000 for various school supplies.
"However, instead of notebook covers, stickers bearing the picture of the Local Chief Executive were pasted on the notebook covers. Had the Local School Board spent the funds for instructional materials, it could have been more effective in catering to the educational needs of the academic community," the COA concluded while adding, "Refund P203,239.35."