PAST LIM ADMIN’S CRIMINAL ANOMALIES

DISMAYED by the discovery of incomplete documents and deleted computer files and or back up files in three offices by the  past city administration, Mayor Belen Fernandez is set to request for a special audit of the finances of the city by the Commission on Audit (COA) as soon as possible.

Fernandez met members of her legal team, staff of the mayor’s office and some department heads last Wednesday to discuss the plan to request for a special audit to find out the true picture of the finances of Dagupan.

She had told the local media after rendering her First 100 Days Report to the People of Dagupan, that the city budget officer could not give her the true picture of the city finances, particularly how much fund was still left in the city coffers for her administration to spend.

She said computer files in the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO), One Stop Shop Business Center (OSBC) and while the City Social Welfare and Development Office’s files on  list of beneficiaries of P245 million cash assistance from the national government are missing while the General Service Office (GSO) has no record on some equipment and vehicles under its custody.

Even records of motorboats turned over to fishermen are missing.

Fernandez said not only were the OSBC’s files on collected traffic violation fees collected by POSO but its files of revenues paid by taxpayers and landowners from July 1, 2019 to July 31, 2022 were deleted.

Without its official records stored in the computers, the city government will have difficulty determining how much in taxes were paid by both landowners and business establishments.

Fernandez, said GSO continues to trace the whereabouts of missing backhoe and dump truck turned over to the Lim administration.

Mayor Fernandez said she is also considering the recommendation to request the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the criminal aspect of the deletion of computer files and back up files, the withholding and pilferage of official records by accountable officials.

She said she also recently discovered that the laptops purchased by the Lim administration were never distributed to the designated offices by the person in whose name the laptops were delivered. These were only recently delivered after an inventory was made.

Among the anomalies unearthed by her administration were the failure of the budget officer to stop the past city administration’s unregulated spending of the P17 million allocated budget for fuel, gasoline and lubricant for the year. She said that in six months, from January to June 30, the past administration already spent P11 million, leaving only P6 million for the use of the garbage trucks and the police station to use until December. (Leonardo Micua)

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