City Hall owes BIR P13.79 million

By: Gerome Dalipe

STATE auditors ordered the Iloilo City Accounting Office to remit some P13.79-million due to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

In its annual report, the Commission on Audit (COA), directed the city accountant to trace the source documents to identify the unreconciled balances since 2006.

“The existence of negative and unreconciled balances in the subsidiary ledgers of the due to BIR account are indications of erroneous entries resulting in doubtful accuracy and reliability of the affected accounts in the financial statements,” read COA report.

Verification of the City Government’s financial statements and its supporting schedules, including the subsidiary ledgers as of Dec. 31, 2018, revealed that it owes BIR a total of P13,792,899.32.

These dues include unreconciled balances amounting to P742,702.44 and negative balances totaling P793,474.10.

Likewise, the auditors discovered the subsidiary ledgers showed the unreconciled balances in prior years’ balances continued since 2006 and were just carried in the books of account.

This malpractice ran contrast to Section 2.80(A) of Revenue Regulations No.02-98 and Section 251 of R.A. No. 8424, thus affecting the reliability and accuracy of the account balance.

In the report, the auditors urged the city accountant to review and reconcile the withheld taxes to ensure correct remittances of taxes are withheld and remitted to the BIR.

The city accountant is also urged to analyze thoroughly the journal entries made before posting the same in the subsidiary ledgers to ensure accurate recording of transactions and reliable balances of accounts.