COA questions Capitol's closed bank accounts, unrecorded vehicles
Five major findings highlighted this year's latest audit report made by government auditors on the coffers of the Iloilo Provincial Government.
Starting off with over P409 million in "depreciable" Capitol assets, the attention of Gov. Niel Tupas, Sr. was called on records that remained not updated despite previous year's request by the Commission on Audit (COA).
As such, the Commission discovered anew inconsistent records at the General Services Office (GSO) that also bare unrecorded Capitol properties. From the over P500 million new Capitol building to 16 heavy equipment like dump trucks and graders, COA discovered that no recording was made at all. Also missing in the Capitol records are 22 other equipment such as generators sets and hospital machineries and ten Capitol vehicles. The unrecorded vehicles bought by the Iloilo Provincial Government included the P2.3 million Nissan Patrol being used by Governor Tupas and a police patrol mobile service assigned to the Governor's Office.
"Another deficiency noted was the failure of the GSO to record in the Property Cards the cost of the newly-constructed buildings during the year amounting to P503,352,712.72 including the new Capitol," excerpts of the COA findings went.
In order to ascertain the validity of the construction costs as also reported, the COA sent its own technical team yet of the over P503 million worth stated, government auditors only managed to verify over P479 million in total cost construction or a difference of over P24 million.
With other Capitol building expenses considered, COA then noted cost of buildings that were not supported with records in the GSO.
"Of the total amount of P647,061,481 as shown in the financial statements, P503,352,712.72 was existing and the difference of P157,124,346.18 or 24.28% was considered doubtful," the COA said.
Meantime a total of P4.8 million in Capitol cash records was discovered to be under "closed accounts." A total of 17 bank accounts are being maintained by the Iloilo Provincial Government with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB).
Capitol submitted to COA bank statements of seven supposed bank accounts yet as COA discovered, "these bank accounts according to the Management and Audit Analyst IV of the accounting office had long been closed," the report as obtained by The News Today (TNT) disclosed.
"Further, our verification of records showed that the submission of the Bank Reconciliation Statement (BRS) to the Office of the Auditor was six (6) months delayed," the COA said while adding that the delay "caused difficulty in the determination of the fairness of presentation of said cash account."
Another COA finding is the over P9.3 million medical equipment acquired for various district hospitals but were later transferred to the West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC).
COA noted discrepancies and irregularities not only in said transfer but the actual bidding conducted.
Four units of Hemodialysis system was bidded in a Purchase Request (PR) that COA noted to be "undated and unnumbered."
Only one bidder appeared to have participated and as the COA further noted, the cost at over P2.4 million per Hemodialysis unit was "exactly the same cost as estimated in the PR."
Government auditors also took note how sales invoices of the over P9.8 million medical equipment both dated August 8, 2006 "have no signature of the person who received the equipment delivered. The equipment were accepted by the representatives of the Governor on August 17, 2006 and inspected by the Inspection Officer/Committee on the same day."
Problem now as the COA noted, transfer of the equipment was made to the WVSUMC "which was recommended by the General Services Officer and approved by the Governor without written authority from the grantor of the fund."
Other concerns were also discovered by COA.
"The equipment were already accepted by the hospital when the Provincial Health Officer I, OIC Provincial Health Office Province of Iloilo issued a Certification dated September 20, 2006 that the eleven district hospitals has no in-house Nephrology Team capable of performing hemodialysis procedures," the COA report continued. "This incapability of the district hospitals to operate the dialysis machine could have been taken into consideration by the provincial government and proper planning been made before the purchase of the machine."
Another finding COA reported was the illegal delegation of top Tupas aide as "assistant Provincial Administrator."
The COA said Executive Assistant II Levy Buenavista is not authorized to countersign any check worth P50,000 and below. And with a previous notification cum warning already made to the Governor, the COA took particular notice how said practice still persists.