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[av_heading heading=’‘Not issuing receipts for collected fees violates audit code’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY IME SORNITO
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Wednesday, February 28, 2018
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ILOILO City – Not issuing official receipts to market vendors and trisikad drivers who paid the fees mandated by the barangay council of San Pedro in Jaro district was a violation of section 68 of Presidential Decree No. 1445 or the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines, according to the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas.
The Ombudsman said Barangay Captain Alex John Acervo Jover and barangay janitor Conrado Gerochi did not issue official receipts for fees collected between April 2013 to November 2014.
The collections reached P125,657.
The Ombudsman issued the ruling on Oct. 12, 2017 yet but this was made public only this month.
Similar fees were also collected sans official receipts between August 2012 to March 2013 but the Ombudsman said Jover and Gerochi could no longer be held accountable because this “already prescribed.”
“It has been four years from the violation until the time the complaint was docketed on March 22, 2017,” explained the Ombudsman.
The complaint also included a charge of usurpation of authority of official function and estafa against Gerochi and violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act of 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) for both Jover and Gerochi. The Ombudsman, however, cleared the two on these charges.
Jover was officially designated as collector so he could not have usurped the function of a barangay collector, according to the Ombudsman.
The charges of estafa and corruption were also dismissed because, according to the Ombudsman, the money collected was not embezzled and in fact used to where it was intended.
According to Jover, the fees collected were used to pay for the water bill of Barangay San Pedro, as approved by the barangay council itself on July 21, 2013.
Each barangay market’s fish vendor was required to pay P50 weekly, and meat vendors, P100 weekly.
To prove that the money collected were indeed used to pay the barangay’s water bills, Jover presented to the Ombudsman their barangay’s proof of payment./PN
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