THE Commission on Audit has ordered officials and employees of the Baguio Water District (BWD) to refund P9.59 million in various allowances received in 2010 and another P9.59 million in 2011.
In two separate decisions released last week, the COA Commission Proper affirmed the 2016 rulings of the COA Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) that upheld notices of disallowance issued against the Cost of Living Allowances (COLA), Amelioration Allowances (AA), and Living Allowances (LA) approved by the water district’s Board of Directors.
The commission sustained the COA-CAR that the allowances were barred by RA 6758 or the Salary Standardization Law which states that all kinds of allowances are deemed integrated into the standardized salary of government personnel, except those specifically enumerated subject to determination by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Held liable for the 2010 disallowance were BWD general manager Teresita de Guzman, internal auditor Godiula Guinto, Administrative Division manager Viveca Villafuerte, senior accountant Wilhelmina Aquino, corporate account analyst Joe Allan Baptista, and BOD members Felino Lagman, Antonio Espiritu, Rodolfo Tabangin, Moises Cating, Renato Rondez, Gina Romillo-Co, Ramsay Colorado, Maria Rosario Lopez, and Emmanuel Malicdem.
Aquino, Baptista, Espiritu, and Tabangin were no longer included in the list of persons held liable in 2011 but Finance Manager Bernadette Velasquez was added.
In their petitions for review, the BWD officials argued that the disallowed benefits were “actually assistance and not allowance.”
But regardless of the name assigned to the cash benefits, the COA said they lacked legal basis.
“Even if the benefit was termed as ‘living assistance,’ the same is still in the nature of an additional benefit prohibited under RA No. 6758, unless granted with the prior approval of the Office of the President (OP). Under a different nomenclature, the LA is the same COLA and AA that were already included in the integration,” the COA declared.
While rank and file personnel were also required to refund the sums they received out of the disallowed benefits, the commission said it is the water district officials who approved the allowances who are solidarily liable for the entire amount.
“Clearly, the approving and certifying officers are solidarily liable to refund the amount disallowed, less the actual refunds to be paid by the payees who are liable to return the amounts they received,” the COA said.
