By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
LAOAG CITY—Following a series of public hearings and deliberation, an ordinance that seeks to intensify internal controls to protect taxpayers’ money is now in place covering the 21 towns and two cities of Ilocos Norte.
This means the local finance committee of each municipality and city, particularly their local chief executives, accountant and treasurer are mandated to strictly implement specific guidelines in handling government funds and failure to do so will subject them to appropriate charges.
Learning from the experience of the Laoag treasury where local taxpayers are still groping in the dark of what really happened on the loss of around ₱90 million from the city coffers, Sangguniang Panlalawigan member Vicentito “Toto” M. Lazo, proponent of the ordinance, said there are existing provisions of the law that must be followed, hence, the passage of said ordinance is meant to strengthen the internal control systems of LGUs.
To date, the multi-million missing funds of Laoag have yet to be recovered and no single person has been held liable for it. No detailed report on how it disappeared and where it went has been given.
Investigation shows the irregularity was traced back since 2007 during the term of former Laoag mayor now Laoag vice mayor Michael V. Fariñas. The irregularity was apparently carried on and left undetected by the local finance committee until city officials discovered that time deposits and savings accounts, opened under the Laoag City government as recorded in the treasury’s financial reports, were non-existent when verified with the Laoag government’s depository banks.
Based on the previous hearings conducted, Lazo reported all accountants in Ilocos Norte have been faithfully conducting verification with depository banks except for the Laoag government.
By law, the accountant is the internal auditor.
“Has the accountant done his job, this irregularity should have been avoided,” Mr. Lazo said referring to the city accountant of Laoag City, Edgar Pascual.
The Laoag City Treasurer’s Office is now under normal operation but its city treasurer Ma. Elena Asuncion who went missing on June 2016 following the discovery of the loss of around ₱90 million. Authorities are still looking for Ms. Asuncion to shed light on the matter.