Barangay treasurers’ lack of skills, makes accounting difficult

Government accountants are having problems checking how barangays spend their funds because many barangay treasurers, especially those from remote areas, do not have the skills and knowledge to perform their duties.

Jaime Naranjo, president of the Government Association of Certified Public Accountants or GACPA yesterday said many barangay treasurers from remote areas have not finished high school and, because they do not have a degree related to their work, these barangay officials “work at the pleasure of the barangay captain.”

“We still have a lot of problem at the barangay level especially in remote areas where many of the barangay treasurers and auditors are not even high school graduates,” Naranjo explained.

The lack of knowledge and skills becomes a problem because then barangay chiefs can control their respective treasurers and sometimes have them do things that are already against government accounting rules.

Naranjo, however, said that the organization is already trying to address the problem by conducting trainings for barangay treasurers to make them aware of their functions and how they should perform their duties.

“We are focusing now at the barangay level. Our different chapters in the provinces are providing training for the barangay accountants and auditors. We have them educated,” he added.

More than 2,000 members of GACPA are in Cebu starting today until Friday for their 29th national convention at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel. The convention will highlight lectures that will focus on the roles of government accountants and auditors as partners in nation building. Their roles in lifestyle checks, investigating corruption cases, and overpricing in government procurements will also be discussed.

Speakers include Sen. Richard Gordon, Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano, Cebu Investment Promotions Center managing Director Joel Mari Yu, and Philippine Anti-Graft Commission chairperson Constancia de Guzman, among others.

GACPA is one of the sectoral organizations under the umbrella of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants. It is an organization of CPAs working in different government agencies and has the biggest membership among government organizations with 25 chapters all over the country.

Meanwhile, Roy Ursal, officer-in-charge of the legal and adjudication division of the Commission on Audit central office, yesterday said that the local government sector of their office here in Cebu is still doing its own audit on the alleged overpricing in the expenses for the ASEAN Summit specifically the Cebu International Convention Center and the decorative lampposts.

Ursal, former regional legal officer of COA 7 told reporters that since the matter is already being investigated by the Ombudsman, the latter is now the proper agency to determine if there was overpricing or not.

“The Ombudsman has already stepped into the picture. And if they direct us to do a specific activity, we will do it,” he said. He said the COA can provide documents to be used as evidence if the Ombudsman requests it to submit the documents.

But he said that these documents are just the same documents that the local government units have forwarded to their office. The COA can also recommend filing of complaint if it finds in its audit that there was overpricing.

Ursal, this year’s over-all chairman of the GACPA convention, said that after their national convention, they are expected to come up with resolutions on how to promote good governance, honesty and integrity in service. — Wenna A. Berondo/QSB