THE Commission on Audit has affirmed 49 notices of disallowance issued against P1.824 billion worth of projects supposedly undertaken by the provincial government of Maguindanao in 2008 and 2009.
The ruling released last Friday by the COA Commission Proper declared all the related transactions “illegal or irregular” as it denied the petition for review filed by former Maguindanao provincial treasurer and Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) member Osmeña Bandila.
Based on a special audit covering total expenditures of P2.437 billion made by Maguindanao between January 2008 to September 2009, more than 76 percent or P1.86 billion were released as cash advances to Bandila.
He claimed suppliers and laborers refused to accept checks although under COA Circular No. 97-002 it was made mandatory that all government expenditures should be paid in checks directly to the supplier or contractor to create a paper trail in support of transparency.
“From the manner in which Mr. Bandila utilized the cash advances, it is evident that there was wanton disregard of the law and this Commission’s rules on cash advance,” the COA said.
The commission noted that the audit team established that the disbursements “were either not documented or documents submitted were spurious.”
Suppliers or contractors that were supposedly paid from the cash advance denied the transactions.
Other suppliers were untraceable due to lack of business permits and absence of income tax returns in the records of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Also, the given addresses were non-existent.
During liquidation, the official receipts submitted were found to bear the same numbers for multiple transactions and different companies. A tax ID for a supplier was found to belong to a local government employee.
No documents were submitted to prove utilization of the palay, corn seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides that were supposed to have been purchased out of the cash advance.
“(T)he supporting documents denote an improbable transaction, such as the delivery of fuel in the quantity of 70,000 to 556,730 liters per day,” the COA pointed out.
Records of all related transactions were ordered turned over by the COA Prosecution and Litigation Office to the Office of the Ombudsman for investigation on possible criminal indictments.
