Govt agencies told to settle P1.48M in fund transfers

By: Gerome Dalipe

THE Commission on Audit (COA) has directed the Iloilo City Accounting Office to demand from national agencies the settlement of funds transferred to various accounts amounting to P1.48-million.

In the 2018 annual audit report on the City Hall, the auditors asked the city accountant to “exhaust all possible remedies” in verifying and reconciling the inter-agency receivables.

“The probability of settlement of dormant Due from national government agencies account balances are remote and could not be ascertained, thus, affected the fair presentation of the receivable accounts in the financial statements,” read the COA report.

Verification of the City Hall’s records showed a balance of P1,753,02 of funds transferred to various national government agencies, unreconciled accounts, and over remittances.

About P1.48 million of these funds are more than 10 years old and considered to be dormant as Dec. 19, 2016.

The agencies concerned are COA, which received fund transfers from City Hall amounting to  P22,175; Comelec, (P98,510); DepEd national high school, (P1.06-million); other inter-agency receivables, (P295,232); and over remittance of withholding tax, (P268,034).

COA Circular 94-013 dated Dec. 13, 1994, requires liquidation of fund transfers to implementing agencies within 10 days after the end of each month.

The concerned agency is also mandated to submit the report of issued checks and the report on the utilization of funds.

During the exit conference, the city accountant explained that they had already sent confirmation letters and asked for the submission of the fund utilization report.

Except for the Comelec, theses agencies denied the existence of the payables in their books of accounts.

Likewise, the auditors said that no proper accounting and reporting could be made in the books of the agency for the balance of the other inter-agency receivables amounting to P295,232.88 unless the same are identified and reconciled.

Nevertheless, the auditors recognized the existence of the dormant accounts and blamed the lack of historical data to reconcile the accounts.

In the report, the auditors asked the city accountant to file a request for authority to write-off dormant fund transfers and other receivables duly supported by quarterly aging of dormant fund transfers.

The city accountant is also urged to exhaust all possible remedies to verify and reconcile the other inter-agency receivables and demand liquidation of the account balances.