MBTF asks COA’s special audit of 5 activities

By December 18, 2022Inside News

MORE IRREGULARITIES TO AUDIT

DAGUPAN City Mayor Belen Fernandez asked the Commission on Audit (COA) anew to conduct special audits on five activities and initiatives of the past Lim administration, among these, the deletion of files on cash collections.

The mayor submitted her fourth request in her December 14, 2022 letter to City Auditor Michael Basa and received by his office on the same day.

In a press conference on December 14 at River Grove, Fernandez said she identified five more irregular activities of the past city administration that need extensive audit –

  1. The deletion of the file of collection of tricycle franchises and traffic violation fees, considered as trust funds, before she assumed office July 1, 2022.
  2. Abandoned operation of the comfort rooms located at ground floor of the Malimgas Market that annually contributed P6 million to city’s revenues.
  3. The continued unauthorized use of the PIO Dagupan City Public Information Office official Facebook by operators of the past city administration, and renamed as “Information on Dagupan City.”
  4. The dismantling of the LED monitor installed at the vicinity of the city plaza in front of West Central School and transferred to Astrodome and Museum.
  5. The transfer of the Command Center & Public Alert Response and Monitoring Center near the CDRRMC to provide early warning  and detection of disasters like storm, earthquake etc. to the Teens Center that reportedly cost the city government P500,000.

She said her first letter resulted in the issuance of Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) by COA on the two missing motorboats which, records showed, were already paid in full to the manufacturer on December 2020 but remains undelivered to this day.

Her second letter resulted in AOM’s findings on the city’s scholarship program under the administration of former Mayor Brian Lim dated December 1, 2022 that found that city funds were paid out to 141 unqualified scholars in February and March this year.

Her latest request for special audit by COA was the city’s purchase of P33 million worth of CCTVs intended for installation in strategic areas of the city that were not only  substandard and defective and but were not installed.

Fernandez said she is confident the city auditor will further find more irregularities in the five activities. (Leonardo Micua)

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