The Baras municipal treasury came under scrutiny by the Commission on Audit in 2023 for not properly complying with the receipt and collection process, describing as doubtful its ability to safeguard public funds against misuse or loss.
In its audit of the local government’s transactions for the year, the COA found that the Revenue Collecting Officers (RCOs) did not report their collections on a daily basis but instead prepared the report on the date the accumulated collections were remitted to the Liquidating Officer (LO).
Moreover, the report stated, collections amounting to P337,658.88 were not remitted to the LO but were directly deposited by the collectors to the LGU’s depository bank, again violation of Section 91 of the Local Treasury Operations Manual (LTOM).
The LO was not able to verify whether collections were properly accounted for and deposited intact. Likewise, there was no effort to determine whether the accountable forms in the custody of the revenue collectors matched the actual balances on hand.
As collections amounting to P10.1 million were directly remitted by LO and RCOs to the bank instead of the treasurer’s office, the municipal treasurer was not able to monitor the turnover of collections, veracity of cash remittances and inventory of the accountable forms.
“These deficiencies seemed to have emanated from the leniency given to RCOs and LO, instead of strictly requiring them to remit their collections to the LO or treasurer timely and regularly,” the audit team remarked, stressing that the treasurer should undertake the deposit of collections to the bank as prescribed by sound internal control.
Likewise, it discovered that 177 pieces of Accountable Forms (Afs) issued to five RCOs could not be accounted for at the time of audit, as they were not found in possession of the collections or included among reports transmitted to the audit team.
“The missing accountable forms signifies weakness in the internal control of the MTO,” the auditors said. “Thus, it may be used for invalid/illegal purpose by unauthorized person who may have found it and collections may remain unaccounted for or unrecorded in the books of accounts of the LGU.”
On the other hand, disbursements for progress billings and final payments for infrastructure projects amounting to nearly P16 million were not supported with complete documentation, raising doubts as to the validity and propriety of the transactions.
Among the lacking documents were the result of test analysis, statement of time elapsed, monthly certificate of payment, and contractor’s affidavit on payment of laborers and materials.
The team observed that the absence of test analysis results implies that the LGU has no assurance that the construction materials used passed the required standards, particularly the quality of GI sheet, reinforcing steel bars and concrete blocks.
A similar issue was found by the auditors with regard to the P337,610.73 in honoraria paid to members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and BAC Secretariat.
The common deficiency was the absence of the Office Order creating the BAC and authorizing the members to collect honoraria, certification that the procurement involves competitive bidding and an attendance sheet listing the names of those present in the BAC meetings.
While the LGU was able to utilize P16 million, or 74.6% of the total 21.4 million allocation for the 20% Development Funds, three programmed projects worth a total of P4.1 million were not implemented during the year.
The municipal engineer, however, clarified that the bidding for the three projects was completed only in December 2023, with the projects fully implemented by May 2024.