DND: Some unliquidated cash advances were by ‘missing’ employees

Reacting to the Ombudsman’s reminder about large amounts of unliquidated cash advances, an official of the Department of National Defense explained that some employees with such cash advances have long been missing and unaccounted for. Illuminada Afuang, officer in charge at the DND's Accounting Division, told GMANews.TV on Wednesday that part of the agency’s liquidation problems were cases of officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who either had left the country and never returned or had been reassigned to some other place without informing the DND accounting office. "Usually these cases involve expenses of officials and personnel traveling both abroad and domestically, including soldiers," Afuang said in an interview. The DND official cited the case of Col. Benito Madarang, who made a cash advance of P300,000 in 2007 supposedly for military schooling in the United States but has yet to return. "Pagpunta niya doon, hindi na siya bumalik. AWOL [Absent Without Leave] na dapat siya at wala na siyang benefits (He made the trip but hasn’t come back since. He should be AWOL and stripped of his benefits)," Afuang said. Another case mentioned by Afuang involved DND employee Maira Chico, who made a cash advance of P22,000 in 2005 and traveled to the Netherlands supposedly to attend a work-related seminar. Afuang said her latest information about Chico was that she went "cross-country" and is currently residing in Canada. "Iyang mga ganyang instances, siyempre hindi na namin sila mahahabol para mag-liquidate (In such instances, of course we could no longer go after them for the liquidation)," Afuang said. In a letter-reminder sent Tuesday to nine agencies, including the DND and the Commission on Elections, Gutierrez ordered that the salaries of government officers and employees not be released until their cash advances have been properly accounted for. Apart from the DND, other agencies with huge unliquidated cash advances include the Department of Education, P1.614 billion; Comelec, P406 million; and the Philippine National Police, P313 million. DND ‘willing to hold salaries’ Afuang said the DND is willing but might find it difficult to hold the salaries of its employees who incurred unliquidated cash advances. She said some of the 81 DND employees identified in the letter-reminder as having unliquidated cash advances either do not get their salaries from the DND or have yet to return to the country. Afuang said a number of those who made cash advances are members of the AFP. Even if it is the DND that releases the money, the military personnel still get their pay not from the DND but from their mother units. She also clarified that the figure of P6.3 million worth of unliquidated cash advances cited by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez was not updated, since the defense agency’s own records show only a total of P3 million unliquidated cash advances as of March. This is lower than the P6,329,521.34 (for the January-March period) reported by Gutierrez, Afuang noted, adding that the Ombudsman data might not have included recent liquidations made at the DND. "Hindi updated ito. Mali ang binigay na data kay Ombudsman. Marami nang nag-liquidate, especially travel abroad as of March (This is not updated. The Ombudsman was given wrong data. Many have already liquidated, especially for travels abroad as of March)," Afuang said. The liquidation report given to the Ombudsman came from the Commission on Audit, which gives reports based on the annual expenses of government agencies as of December of every year. The accounting official said that it was “not uncommon" for the DND to incur unliquidated cash advances every year, but noted that this is the first time that the Ombudsman issued a letter-reminder to the agency. She said she was already drafting a letter to the Ombudsman and the COA, requesting to both update their records on cash advances and write off the advances of “missing" employees such as Madarang and Chico. Extreme cases In the case of Comelec’s unliquidated cash advances, spokesman James Jimenez said that holding the salaries of the poll body’s employees would only be implemented in "extreme" cases. "It's kind of counter-productive if you take it from their salary kasi wala ding pera iyong tao. Kawawa din naman siya (because the poor guy doesn’t have money, let’s also consider that)," Jimenez told GMA News. He said he was no longer surprised that the poll body was among the agencies with the highest unliquidated cash advances, given that the Comelec was in full swing during the May 2010 polls. He said missing receipts and documents damaged by floods contributed to the slowing down of liquidation in the Comelec. Last June, Comelec chairman Jose Melo had already ordered the holding of the salaries of a number of their employees, even before the Ombudsman made the reminder. This month, the poll chief said he has already sent demand letters to at least 100 employees who incurred new unliquidated cash advances. "[I told the employees] if you don't take any action on this, I will forward this matter to the Ombudsman," Melo had told reporters Tuesday.—JV, GMANews.TV