14.7 We would like to refer management to Section 5.9 of the same COA Circular,
which states that when no liquidation of the previous cash advance is received on
or before January 20 of the ensuing year, the Accountant shall cause the
withholding of the AO’s salary.
14.8 As a result of the non-settlement of cash advances which may have already been
expended, considering that these have been outstanding for quite a long period
already, the related receivable and expense accounts on the financial statements are
not fairly presented. Moreover, the delayed liquidation and the holding of any
excess cash advances that should have already been refunded by the officials and
employees concerned opens opportunities for misuse or misapplication of cash,
hence increasing the risk of possible loss of government funds in their possession.
14.9 Considering that demand letters have already been sent and yet the accountable
officers still refused to make the settlement, it appear that their inaction is already
intentional. Thus, management should exert strong efforts to compel those with
long outstanding cash advances to immediately settle the same and strictly enforce
the suspension of salaries of the erring accountable officers, including the filing of
appropriate administrative proceedings, pursuant to the Civil Service Commission
(CSC) Memorandum Circular No. 12, s. 2012.
14.10 We recommended that the City Accountant issue final demand letters
directing the persons concerned to immediately liquidate all outstanding
cash advances.
14.11 And if no liquidation is effected, we recommended that the City Accountant
impose the sanction of withholding the salaries of those who still fail to settle
their accounts after issuing notice.
14.12 We further recommended that Management pursue aggressive measures to
compel all accountable officers to settle their accounts, including the filing
of appropriate administrative proceedings, pursuant to CSC Memorandum
Circular No. 12, s. 2012.
14.13 The City Accountant informed the audit team that, as of this March, they had
deducted a total of ₱138,000.00 from the salaries of concerned officials and
employees, regarding the unsettled cash advances. Some of the remaining
unliquidated cash advances, which Management has evaluated as impossible to
collect, have already been requested for write-off.
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