THE Commission on Audit (COA) disallowed Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes’s trip to the Netherlands last October 2008 because he reportedly lacked authorization, a councilor said in a resolution.
COA may ask the mayor to pay back the P191,000 spent during the trip.
Cortes said the trip benefited the city, which acquired 60 computers as a result and expects a fire truck to arrive soon. His trip also resulted in the arrival of foreign volunteers.
The disallowance was one of COA’s recent findings and mentioned in a resolution drafted by Councilor Emil Rosal.
In that resolution, Rosal also urged all City Hall department heads to reply to COA’s findings and heed its recommendations.
Rosal’s resolution quotes COA as saying the mayor’s trip to the Netherlands “has no authority from the secretary of DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government), resulting to the possible disallowance of his travel expenses in the amount of P191,307.60.”
But Cortes told reporters he did not see any disadvantage in his trip. He said he already submitted his justification to COA.
Of the 60 computers donated by the Haarlemermeer government, 40 sets were assigned to the Mandaue City College, while the remaining 20 went to the public library.
The city will soon acquire a fire truck, coursed through the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (Eruf), as a result of that trip, Cortes added.
“Hopefully, we can build an Eruf station with this fire truck,” mayor said.
The mayor said he is willing to pay with his personal funds in case COA issues a disallowance order.
Check and balance
Meanwhile, a local government lawyer said yesterday that a debate continues on whether local chief executives, like mayors and governors, are required to get authorization from the local council or provincial board when entering into contracts.
Section 22(c) of the Local Government Code states: “Unless otherwise provided in this Code, no contract may be entered into by the local chief executive on behalf of the local government unit without prior authorization by the sanggunian concerned.
A legible copy of such contract shall be posted at a conspicuous place in the provincial capitol or the city, municipal or barangay hall.”
The Commission on Audit (COA) 7 recently used this provision against Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez, over 22 contracts worth P49.9 million, which did not get authorization from the city council. This was among COA’s findings in its audit of Talisay’s transactions in 2008.
But Atty. Danilo Almendras, legal officer of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) 7, said that provision must be seen in the light of other laws like the Government Procurement Reform Act or Republic Act 9184.
In an opinion issued in February 2006, the DILG said that a local chief executive may sign contracts even without authorization from the local legislature “for as long as there is a law or ordinance that authorizes him or her to do so.”
Almendras said there have been times that some local chief executives would rely on the Government Procurement Reform Act, in defending contracts that didn’t go to the council or Provincial Board for prior authorization.
The 2006 legal opinion by the DILG also stated that as long as the project contracts were included in the annual or supplemental budget approved by local legislators, there was no need to secure further authorization.
“It could not have been the intent of our Congress to paralyze local government projects or contracts through circuitous or redundant procedures,” the DILG opinion said. (JKV)
source
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment