4 indicted for Malabon gov’t payroll scam

The Office of the Ombudsman has indicted four former employees of the Malabon City government for a payroll padding scam in 2013.

The city government’s former human resources chief and three clerks face charges for six counts of graft and six counts of estafa for allegedly padding the salaries of two clerks by P1.14 million within one year.

Facing charges before the Sandiganbayan are Edgardo Casimero, former chief of the city human resources and management development department; bookbinder Magdalena Sebulino; administrative officer Rosa Vilma De Jesus, and administrative aide Rosalie Bernardo.

Investigators in the antigraft agency discovered an overpayment of P1.14 million in the payroll of Bernardo and De Jesus in 2013.

A Commission on Audit report said Bernardo was supposed to receive only P10,000 as monthly salary while De Jesus was supposed to receive only P4,000.

But based on bank records, their payroll accounts received a total of P1.14 million in overpayment in six months that year.

De Jesus had reportedly confessed to the scam and told investigators “she was persuaded by Bernardo to agree to her plan of increasing the amount of their salary in their ATM (automated teller machine) card” because she “was assured that it would be done smoothly.”

Casimero, meanwhile, claimed that his signatures in the ATM payroll were forged and falsified, and that he did not know the password to access Malabon’s payroll system.

But Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales ruled the four respondents “conspired with one another to tamper with and pad the payroll in favor of Bernardo and De Jesus.”

The Ombudsman dismissed the complaint against another respondent, city treasurer Amalia Santos, for insufficient evidence.