THE Commission on Audit (COA) has questioned Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) officials’ cash advances amounting to P14.1 million during the Aquino administration.
In its audit report, the commission said there are lapses in the grant and liquidation of cash advances involving P14.1 million to SBMA officials, who were not even duly designated as disbursing officers.
The agency said the cash advances and inadequate documentation of liquidations totaling P5.5 million “exposed government funds to risks of misappropriation or loss and cast doubt on their regularity.”
The COA reported that the postaudit of disbursement vouchers (DVs) for cash advances with their liquidation reports revealed that the cash advances were granted to seven SBMA officers, six of whom were not duly designated as disbursing officers.
The six were granted bulk of the advances, the agency added.
The audit agency said the former Senior Deputy Administrator for Support Services Ramon Agregado had cash advances of P12.687 million, while the Deputy Administrator for Legal Affairs Randy Escolango’s cash advances totaled P299,700.
The other officials who had cash advances were Mary Jamelle Camba, tourism department manager (P425,700); Fernando de Villa Jr., deputy administrator for administration (P451,940); Von Rodriguez, legal department manager (102,065.75); and Solomon Jacalne, manager for public health and safety (P63,170), the COA said.
“The granting of cash advance without the requisite authority violated COA Circular 97-002 dated February 10, 1997, which limits disbursing functions to only duly appointed or designated disbursing officers,” the COA added.
Meanwhile, the COA also said cash balances of nearly P2.8 billion as of December 2015 were “understated” by a net amount of P355,200.82 due to unrecorded collections of nearly P8.3 million, disbursements of P7.4 million and adjustments of P490,356.22.
The COA also discovered that inventory account balances as of yearend of P107.8 million were overstated by a net amount of P88.8 million.
The agency said this was due to unrecorded spare parts inventory of P5.3 million, inclusion in the balance of non-existing stocks of P2.4 million, and unaccounted inventories of P91.8 million “resulting from lack of reconciliation between the accounting and property records in violation of Section 43 of the Manual on the New Government Accounting System.”
The commission also said the recorded balances of Property Plant Equipment (PPE) accounts as of December 2015 with a net book value of P24.6 billion “were unreliable” due, among others, to the inclusion in the balances of the P1.1 billion costs of demolished buildings and other structures and the “doubtful existence and valuation” of PPE accounts amounting to P23.4 billion.
It also cited as reasons the “incomplete report on the physical count of assets” worth P2.5 billion as well as “discrepancy in the total land area of the agency’s real estate property per accounting and property records by 1,013.22 hectares of undetermined amount. “
The COA said the year-end balance of Accounts Payable of P365.5 million according to COA, was understated by a net amount of P10.8 million. This was the result of non-recognition of payables of P16.7 million from the procurement made by the Procurement and Property Management Department (PMMD) and the late submission of Disbursement Vouchers totaling P5.9 million for payments already made to creditors.
Non-functional airport
THE COA also said owing to lack of plans to mitigate the risks of loss or reduced clienteles, the SBMA apparently neglected the operation and maintenance of the Subic Bay International Airport (SBIA) resulting in non-functional organizational structure of SBIA and “idle, obsolete and unmaintained equipment and facilities costing at least P54.7 million representing 86.6 percent of the overall airport equipment.”
“Loss of income opportunity caused by lack of (a) comprehensive tourism marketing plan as evidenced by the decrease in passenger and aircraft movements by 82.78 percent and 44.31 percent of performance levels respectively in the period 2008 to 2015,” the commission said.
It added that the SBMA also failed to comply with the laws and regulations on planning, budgeting, implementation of programs, activities and projects and the preparation of accomplishment report on Gender and Development.
Contrary to COA Circular 2009-001, the SBMA failed to submit to the Audit Team copies of contracts and pertinent documents for projects costing at least P35.6 million, resulting in delayed audit action and identification and correction of errors.
