THE Commission on Audit has denied the appeal of officials of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS)-Corporate Office to the 2016 decision of the COA-Government Sector upholding the notices of disallowance issued on the payment of extra allowances to agency officials in 2013 amounting to P5.39 million.
In a decision released yesterday, COA Chair Michael G. Aguinaldo and Commissioner Roland C. Pondoc said the petition for review filed by MWSS-CO should be dismissed outright for being filed out of time.
They noted the petition was filed 262 days from the date of the receipt of the notices of disallowance (NDs). Under COA rules, the appeals process must not take longer than 180 days.
While there have been occasions when the rule was relaxed, the COA said these are only under “exceptionally meritorious cases.”
“There are certain procedural rules that must remain inviolable, like those setting the periods for perfecting an appeal or filing a Petition for Review, for it is doctrinally entrenched that the right to appeal is a statutory right and one who seeks to avail of that right must comply with the statute or rules,” the COA Commission Proper said.
The Commission also noted that the assertion of the MWSS Board of Trustees’ authority to set the compensation of the agency’s officials and employees is not absolute.
“The substantive issues on the MWSS’ grant of allowances and increase in the rates of RATA, were already settled by the SC in the recent case of MWSS vs. COA, wherein it was held that the authority of the MWSS Board of Trustees to fix the compensation of its personnel and grant allowances and benefits is limited by Republic Act No. 6758 (Compensation and Position Classification Act of 1989),” the COA declared.
Since the petitioners failed to raise new issues that have not been passed upon by the commission, it ruled that there is no justifiable ground to disturb the assailed ruling which was declared to have attained finality.