9 agencies with unsettled cash advances asked to withhold pay

THE OMBUDSMAN has asked nine agencies to withhold salaries of officers and employees who failed to liquidate cash advances.

Total unliquidated cash advances amounted to P2.4 billion, according to a statement issued by the state graft buster yesterday.

The nine agencies are Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Elections (Comelec), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Bureau of Immigration (BI), Department of National Defense (DND), Bureau of Customs (BoC), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and National Police Commission (Napolcom).

The top three are DepEd, P1.6 billion; Comelec, 406 million; and PNP, P313 million.

BJMP has unliquidated cash advances worth P18 million; BI, P9 million; and DND, P6 million. BoC, PPA and Napolcom each have unliquidated cash advances of less than P400,000.

The statement said that under Commission on Audit (CoA) circular 97-0002, cash advances should be liquidated as follows:

* salaries, wages — five days after each 15 day/end of the month pay period;
* petty operating expenses and field operating expenses — within 20 days after the end of the year, subject to replenishment as frequently as necessary during the year;
* official travel — within 60 days after return to the Philippines in case of foreign travel or within 30 days after return to permanent official station in case of local travel; and
* intelligence and confidential funds for national and corporate sectors — within one month from the date the purpose of the cash advance was accomplished.

CoA also requires agencies to submit a monthly progress liquidation report for projects that go beyond one month.

Violators may be criminally liable under the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines and the Revised Penal Code, particularly malversation of public funds and failure of accountable officer to render accounts.

Administrative charges may also be filed for gross neglect of duty and dishonesty.

In a letter sent last week to heads of government agencies, the Ombudsman requested a report of cash advances submitted 10 days upon receipt of notice.

Assistant Ombudsman Jose T. de Jesus said by phone yesterday that accountable officers who fail to submit reports will undergo investigation by a fact-finding body for possible filing of criminal or administrative charges.

Reacting to the Ombudsman, DepEd said in a statement only P653 million in cash advances remain to be accounted for.

“If there are some we find we will require administrative sanctions, we will act on them as well,” the statement read.

Sought for comment, James Arthur B. Jimenez, Comelec spokesman, said the poll body’s unliquidated cash advances funded services rendered during the May 10 elections, the bulk of which was in the form of allowances of teachers who served as poll supervisors.

“Expenses [during the elections] are scattered all over the country. We’re not talking about single expenditure; we are talking about expenditure over a period of several months,” he said in a briefing yesterday.

For his part, Ferdinand T. Rafanan, director of Comelec’s law division, cited the Ombudsman’s move.

“The names of all those who have availed of cash advance should be published, including liquidation. All should realize that those are public funds that must be accounted for,” he said in a text message.

Commissioner Lucenito N. Tagle said by phone that the poll body will conduct an audit of concerned officials.

The PNP, meanwhile, said it will follow the Ombudsman’s directive.

“It is a policy of the PNP as part of its integrated transformation program to enforce sound financial transactions involving limited government resources,” Senior Superintendent Agrimero A. Cruz, Jr., PNP spokesman, said in a text message. — Noemi M. Gonzales, Businessworld