‘Don’t blame me,’ Tupas says on P1.2B ‘doubtful’ Capitol assets
Points to ‘previous’ admin, snubs SP invite
Request made, request denied.
Such summed up the highly-expected presence of top Capitol officials invited for a legislative hearing relative to the P1.2 billion “doubtful” Capitol assets.
The curt denial came from the official reply of Iloilo Governor Niel Tupas saying the 9th Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) has no business on the matter. In fact, Tupas added, it was not even worthy of attention.
With an invite sent August 26th, permission was sought for the attendance of Ramie Salcedo, General Services Office chief and Lyd Tupas, Provincial Accountant.
“The request is denied. The matter of the COA report pertaining to the inventory of the property, plant and equipment of the Province of Iloilo is not subject to any legislation of the Sanggunian Panlalawigan,” Tupas wrote while adding, “There is no hiding of cover-up of wrong-doing.”
What it was, the governor said was that “the problem of the inventory was inherited from the previous administration. The malicious innuendos made by Vice Governor Suplico are baseless and there is no need to give it any attention.”
The billion-mark of the questioned Capitol assets topped this year’s COA report, a repeat of the yearly audit in the entire duration of the 3-term Tupas administration. Now on its last term and eighth year, the problem ballooned to P1.2 billion and feared to be left hanging by the Tupas-led provincial government.
Legislative probe was focused on the Capitol office fixtures, office and transportation equipment with Iloilo Vice Governor Rolex Suplico as lead prober.
Such as answers are sought on mismatched records from the General Ledger of the Accounting Office to that of the GSO.
The AAR was specific -- Capitol did not conduct mandated physical inventory “thus rendering the validity, existence and correctness of the account doubtful.”
Further still, records showed the “unaccounted difference” of over P408 million worth of Capitol properties such as office equipment, furniture and fixtures and transportation equipment. The Commission dubbed those as “very significant discrepancies” that had the State Auditors take extra steps so the Tupas administration can comply with government-prescribed regulations.
Records in the general ledger listed a total of P457,719,895.32 of Capitol assets. In contrast was the submitted GSO inventory which was only P49,393,184.88 or a difference of over P408 Million worth of Capitol properties.
2006 records of the Capitol audited in 2007 disclosed unaccounted and unreconciled records of the PPE with over P97 million questioned.
Similar check in the 2007 records disclosed in 2008 established over P560 million in PPE account that were impossible to audit due to incomplete inventory taking. Added to it was “total unaccounted difference” of over P365 million in office buildings, office equipment and Information Technology (IT) equipment.