THE Office of the Solicitor (OSG) has P28.457 million in cool cash waiting for claimants among its lawyers.
Government auditors revealed the sum, representing honoraria for legal services rendered by OSG lawyers, has accumulated over the last three years as bankers and accountants go sleuthing to find out who should be getting paid.
There is one big stumbling block however before the dough crosses path with the defender — someone must wade through all the paperwork to determine who should be getting a share and how much.
According to auditors, in many cases the papers are not even on hand and may require a fair bit of backtracking.
“The absence of supporting documents, which includes credit memoranda and notices of payment/remittances from various agency-clients of the OSG prevents the identification of corresponding officers and employees to whom the amount is payable,” the audit team said.
Likewise, the team said they have to find someone who is interested in the money. On that point alone, the money is not going anywhere soon.
“No actual claims have been filed by the lawyers/claimants for several years, the amount accumulated and remained undisposed,” the auditors said.
The breakdown of the money with listings as to when they came in showed P5.51 million had been untouched dating back three years, and P5.79 million had been there two years and counting.
