DOTC vehicles worth P19M missing-COA

The Commission on Audit. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Audit failed to locate several vehicles valued at P19.5 million and listed in the books of the Department of Transportations and Communications (DOTC).

“Motor vehicles at DOTC showed a total of P19,481,754.86 were recorded in the books but were not found during the physical inventory. The same number of units was without records of ownership filed in the Property Division,” said the COA in its 2012 audit report released last week.

Also, vehicles valued at P2,335,022.89 and which were supposedly transferred to other government offices had no record of assignment of property.

“Confirmation letters sent to said (recipient) agencies revealed that the vehicles were not found in their records or reported to be in their possession,” the report said.

The COA also questioned the DOTC about the 40 cars, each with an assigned price tag of P1.00.

“Verification of the SSLB (statement of subsidiary ledger balance) at DOTC as of December 31, 2012, also disclosed that 40 motor vehicles reflected a value of only one peso per unit,” the COA said.

The DOTC had told COA the 40 vehicles were recorded at a cost of P1.00 per unit “for monitoring purposes only” as they were received from various projects with incomplete documentation.

But COA said government agencies are expected to take good care of such assets since they are considered public property.

Thus, the DOTC Property Officer must conduct a complete physical count of all properties and submit a report which will cover correct appraisal of the value of the one-peso vehicles with a recommendation for proper disposal of unserviceable unit, the report said.

Auditors tracked down 22 vehicles, with 19 of them listed as “serviceable” while three others “unserviceable.”

An additional 11 units were found to have been “loaned” to other government offices although only seven are still running.

The remaining seven have simply vanished and written down as having “no records with the Property Office” and “unaccounted.”