Razon orders recovery of pay given to dismissed cops

THE National Police will take legal action against its dismissed members who have managed to encash paychecks that were issued to them despite having been separated from the service.

Director General Avelino Razon Jr., National Police chief, said the force would send demand letters to the last known addresses of the policemen to recover payments that  have been inadvertently issued to them despite their separation from the service.

He said the National Police, through its Finance and Legal Services, would recover P36.8-million overpayments to 153 dismissed, 92 resigned and 20 terminated policemen.

“If these people will not heed our demand to return the overpaid amount, we will file criminal and civil cases against them to recover these government funds,” Razon said.

Earlier, the force was able to recover P40 million in overpayments from 995 retired, 269 deceased and 59 suspended personnel. Payment for these receivables were deducted from the pension and benefits received by the personnel.

In its 2007 report, the Commission on Audit noted overpayments amounting to P76.8 million made to 1,739 deceased, retired, dismissed, suspended and terminated personnel.

“We have initiated some administrative measures to ensure that the names of retired, deceased and dismissed personnel will be deleted from the payroll automatically upon issuance of their separation orders,” Razon said.

The National Police spokesman, Chief Supt. Nicanor Bartolome, said the overpayments were traced to some administrative oversight wherein the names of some of the deceased, retired and dismissed personnel were not immediately deleted from the master file.

“Because the names were not deleted on time, either the Computer Service continued to print their paychecks or the Finance Service continued to credit payments to their bank-payroll accounts,” Bartolome said.

“The element of good faith does not exist in this case. From all indications, there was fraud and dishonesty committed, and these government funds must be recovered,” he added. -- R. Acosta

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Razon orders recovery of pay given to dismissed cops

THE National Police will take legal action against its dismissed members who have managed to encash paychecks that were issued to them despite having been separated from the service.

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