Unpaid bills from Gwen’s administration pile up; governor to review list of payables of suppliers
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III yesterday said he would proceed carefully in dealing with a long list of bills worth P789 million left behind by the previous administration.
Not everyone with a money claim can expect to be paid at once.
While the Capitol has P791 million cash on hand, Davide said he would first review whether vouchers and supporting documents are in order, especially for transactions that need the Provincial Board’s approval
“It’s obvious that the province is not debt-free,” said Davide, after the provincial treasurer’s office presented him with an updated account of the Capitol’s payables as of June 14.
The post-election list includes obligations for contractors for road projects (P480 million), buildings (P92.4 million), waterworks (P12.4 million), and several hotels, restaurants and travel agencies which did business with the Province during the term of former governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
Davide, who has to face suppliers and contractors, will have to prioritize who gets paid when.
“Kung bayran tanan payables, zero gyud. Alkanse man gani ta (If we pay all the oblgations, we end up with zero. We’ll be on the losing end),” said the former anti-graft lawyer.
Garcia’s glowing report that she was leaving the Province “debt-free” with over P3 billion in assets was emphasized in her turnover speech during her last working day at the Capitol.
Garcia had emphasized that the province had no obligations to financial institutions and that “debt” was different from “payables” incurred in the course of regular operations of the province.
The rosy financial picture she gave has caused some confusion as the Capitol, now headed by Governor Davide, faces many supppliers and contractors demanding payment.
“The veracity of the figures presented by former governor Gwen Garcia during the turnover ceremonies last June 28 still has to be checked. What is definite is the amount of the outstanding payables,” said Davide yesterday.
“Maybe she meant we have no utang with financial and banking institutions. But if you have payables, clearly, that’s an obligation to pay. That’s still debt,” said Davide, who took oath last June 30.
Davide said he would meet with the provincial treasurer, accountant and PB members to review the bills, and decide how and when to settle them.
Of the P789 million in payables, transactions for only P126 million are covered by vouchers, said OIC provincial treasurer Yolanda Cabando.
This means that the rest of the bills worth P663 million have not been processed or lack supporting documents to complete the steps.
“Most of the accounts only have billing statements which makes it impossible to audit. They don’t have vouchers,” Cabando told reporters yesterday.
Davide said that for the meantime, he will not approve any payments which lack vouchers or approval from the PB.
“We might get problems with COA regarding that. I will recommend that we will not pay for those because precisely, there are no vouchers and supporting documents so this needs careful examination,” he said.
“We will ask COA’s opinion about this.”
Bills which were presented for payment to the Capitol from June 17-21 covered utilities (P848,195), manpower services (P2.7 million), various suppliers (5.6 million), hospital bills (P321,368), including a job order for services of a production director for P112,242.
One of the big payables is P63 million from Con Equip, which supplied China-made tourist buses for the Suroy- Suroy program. Units which were already distributed last year to beneficiary towns and used in countryside tours.
Last June, then acting Gov. Agnes Magpale refused to pay for the 27 tourist buses saying the purchase never went through the Provincial Board.
“I never approved the payment for that because there were two conflicting opinions from DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) and COA (Commission on Audit),” she told Cebu Daily News yesterday.
COA had warned that the purchase lacked PB approval while the DILG gave weight to the fact that the buses were already delivered to the Province and being used by the towns.
It’s up to Davide now whether to have a check payment issued for the buses.
The treasurer’s report showed that bills for Capitol transactions reached P706.3 million in Jan. 14, 2013 and were received shortly after Magpale was appointed OIC governor following the Dec. 18, 2012 suspension of then Governor Gwen Garcia.
Another P79.9 million payables was recorded in June 21 and another P2.76 million in May 22, as more suppliers and contractors came forward demanding to be paid.
Garcia, in her final speech as chief executive of the province, said that during her nine-year term, her administration spent P6.4 billion to implement her 12-point agenda to ensure that “Cebu would be the premier province”.
She said most of the money or P5.5 billion went to infrastructure projects to complete roads, bridges, drainage, schools, street lighting and new government buildings such as the Cebu International Convention Center, the Cebu Cultural Center and new headquarters for the Cebu provincial police and other law enforcement agencies.
At present, the biggest payables being presented to the Capitol are for services of contractors for road projects (P480 million), buildings (P92.4 million), and waterworks (P12.4 million).
