Suppliers of goods and services in San Andres are reportedly getting wary of entering into transactions with the municipal government due to the processing of payment that often takes more than a month.
This was learned from official sources in and out of the local government who provided details of the inordinately long period of processing of the disbursement vouchers.
According to a report on the issue that was submitted by a department head to Mayor Leo Z. Mendoza last month, the main observation centers on how the Municipal Accounting Office processes vouchers based on its Citizen’s Charter that provides a definite timetable on the procedures.
The office’s own charter categorizes the DVs based on the number of supporting documents: those with 20 documents will take two (2) hours to process, those with 21 to 50 documents will take four hours, while those with more than 50 documents would be completed in five days.
In contrast, the accounting office in the municipality of Virac, which handles a larger number of transactions, reportedly processes vouchers within an hour to a day.
Pursuant to Republic Act 110321, or an Act Promoting Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Delivery of Government Services, that amended RA 9485 (Red Tape Act of 2007), the government office concerned is mandated to classify transactions into simple and complex.
Sec. 4 of RA 110321 defines “simple transactions” as applications or requests submitted by applicants or requesting parties of a government office or agency which require ministerial actions on the part of the public officer or employee, or that which present only inconsequential issues for resolution by an officer or employee of said office.
On the other hand, “complex transactions” are those which necessitate evaluation in the resolution of complicated issues such as transactions to be determined by the office concerned.
The same law provides that processing a simple transaction should not take more than a day while a complex one could take two to three days.
In one transaction at the San Andres LGU involving the supply and delivery of medicines and medical supplies by Carebeam Pharmaceutical Products Distribution in the amount of P483,786.00 through public bidding, the processing of the voucher with more than 50 supporting documents was to take five days for review and evaluation of the documents by an accountant and three more days for review and signature of the head of office.
Instead, the process took a total of 38 working days at the accounting office.
The voucher was transmitted to the office on June 13, 2022 and went missing and unacted upon until August 10 when it was sent to the treasurer’s office for issuance of check.
But it was not acted upon as the voucher had a handwritten notation by the accountant personnel that there was “no attached CPR of Diclofenac Sodium for 25 mg.”
The report wondered why the voucher was not sent back for appropriate action by the supply office, where the required document was available, as early as June 13, as the same failure to return vouchers with lacking documentation to the appropriate office was noted in other previous transactions.
It was likewise stressed that the concerned personnel should not write his findings on the voucher itself as he is not a signatory in the document and such notations could be done on a Post-It note.
In another transaction, the DV for the procurement and delivery of tilapia and bangus fingerlings for P344,800.00 was submitted to the accounting office on July 5, 2022 and after 14 working days was returned to the agriculture office with a finding on wrong dates.
Resubmitted to the accounting office on Aug. 1, it was reviewed and finally approved on Aug. 3, with the entire process taking a total of 24 working days.
The report submitted to the chief executive also included copies of simple transactions that took more than five days to complete at the same office.
In most of the transactions, the accounting officer personnel made handwritten notations on the voucher itself indicating his findings, which an official of the Commission on Audit said would make it almost certain that the transaction would be subject to scrutiny even if the defect could be corrected or addressed at the municipal level.
In contrast, a request for monetization of leave credits by an official who was to undergo hip replacement had the stamp “Supporting Documents Complete and Proper” when the voucher had no attached clinical abstract indicating the medical procedures to be undertaken.
What was attached to the voucher as supporting document was a signed referral issued by a Manila-based doctor, with the voucher approved in two days, the report stated.
Mayor Mendoza reportedly called the personnel in question to a meeting and asked the concerned personnel not to write his findings on the voucher itself.
It was not indicated if the chief executive also ordered the accounting office to speed up the processing of papers.
Incidentally, the entire country celebrates Civil Service Month this September, with a “Kapihan ng mga Civil Servants” scheduled on the 14th on the topic “Ease of Doing Business.”