THE Commission on Audit has ordered the Jaen Water District (JWD) to pay Primewater Infrastructure Corp’s claim of unpaid shares in the collections at the start of their Joint Venture Agreement in 2017 totaling P24.2 million.
In an en banc ruling released yesterday, the COA gave credence to the September 16, 2021 memorandum of the supervising auditor and the audit team leader that they have validated all the disbursements made by the water district for the account of Primewater and found them to be “in order and fully supported by necessary documents substantiating the claims.”
In a previous ruling issued on January 27, 2020, the COA en banc denied Primewater’s claim for being deficient in supporting documents but notified the JVA partner that it could refile the same claim once it had gathered the necessary documentation.
The JVA between Primewater and JWD was signed on October 28, 2016 “for the financing, development, rehabilitation, expansion, improvement, operation, and maintenance of the water supply and septage management system” covering the municipality of Jaen.
On January 6, 2017, just a little over two months after the agreement was signed, the joint venture started operations.
However, PrimeWater’s application for a business permit was still under process so from January 6 to April 15, 2017, it was JWD’s official receipt that was used for all transactions, particularly customer payments although the collections were deposited in the bank account of PrimeWater.
However, during the regular audit of Jaen Water District’s financial records, a cash shortage of P7.27 million based on duplicate copies of official receipts issued was discovered.
On October 26, 2017, the JVA partners signed a memorandum of agreement wherein Primewater agreed to return the P7.27 million to reverse the cash shortage.
Also part of the agreement was the full settlement and reconciliation of their accounts for the period covering January 6 to October 19, 2017. This resulted in the computation of the sum due to Primewater amounting to P24,200,405.24.
To substantiate its claim, Primewater submitted the daily collection reports, statement of expenses, business permit, and the JWD Board Resolution No. 022-S.2017.
“In this case, Primewater submitted sufficient documents to establish the validity of the money claims. It is worth noting that the JWD never challenged the aforementioned documents …and admitted the correctness of the amount claimed,” the COA pointed out.
