City Hall’s P138M account payables to suppliers ‘suspicious’

By: Gerome Dalipe

STATE auditors doubted the accuracy and validity of the Iloilo City Government’s “other payables” account amounting to P138.26 million in 2018.

The auditors, in their annual report of the City’s financial transactions for 2018, said the City’s financial obligations to its suppliers or contractors are “doubtful” due to some errors in the subsidiary ledger of account balances.

These include unreconciled or lack of detail amounting to P91.20 million; negative balances of P10.25 million; settlement of audit disallowances of (P3.66 million); stale checks, (P.913 million).

Likewise, the Commission on Audit said that various collections held in trust and in prior years were unclaimed accounts.

Such practice by the City Hall violated COA Circular 2015-009, which prescribes the Revised Chart of Accounts for local government units, and Presidential Decree 1445, or the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines.

Thus, these affect the fair presentation of the affected accounts in the financial statements, the auditors noted.

In their report, the auditors asked the city accountant to exert efforts to trace and determine the unreconciled subsidiary ledger account balances.

The accountant is also tasked to review and analyze the lapses or errors in the recording of payables particularly those with negative balances, stale checks, and settlement of audit disallowances, among others.

The city accountant is also urged to adhere strictly to COA Circular 2015-009 in the use of the prescribed accounts in the recording of transactions to ensure accuracy and reliability of the accounts in the financial statements.

Apart from the doubtful payables, the City Government also failed to release to various barangays their shares of the real property taxes amounting to P329,927.44.

The city accountant is tasked to provide the city treasurer with the schedule of tax shares to each barangay.