City won't shoulder Veco surcharges of barangays

CEBU, Philippines - The Visayan Electric Company (Veco) has also started imposing surcharges to barangays with unpaid bills or those that fail to pay their bills within the nine-day grace period.

But the Cebu City Accounting Office warned that vouchers for the payment of electricity bills with surcharges will still be processed at the accounting office but the surcharges will have to be deducted from the amount they will authorize for release.

City Accountant Marietta Gumia said there is a Commission on Audit ruling that prohibits the government from paying surcharges on the ground that the government should not be held responsible for the delay in the transaction.

An auditor from COA said that the surcharges will be the liability of the person responsible for the delay. The accounting office has started receiving vouchers for electricity bill payment of barangays for the month of April.

At least one barangay already has a surcharge for its failure to pay its bill for March. The surcharge for barangay Guadalupe amounted to over P2,000 for a two-month worth of power consumption costing a total of P113,991.44.

Gumia said the P2,000-surcharge will not be included in the amount to be authorized for release.

The barangay will have to find another fund source to pay it, but definitely, they cannot use government funds.

“Ambot unsaon nila, tunga-tungaan na nila didto but we cannot allow them to use government funds to pay the surcharge because that will be questioned by COA,” Gumia said.

All transactions of the barangays undergo pre-audit at the city accounting as a way to ensure that barangays are spending wisely and within the bounds of the law.

It is the barangay that prepares the voucher and the check which they then submit to the accounting office for pre-audit.

If all requirements are met, the City Accountant signs and issues the Bank’s Advice which is required by the bank to release the checks.

Gumia told the barangays to process their bills on time so they will not have to suffer surcharges imposed by the power distributor for late payment.

Basak San Nicolas Captain George Rama said that his barangays prepares the voucher immediately once they receive the bills.

“Madugay among papel sa accounting office, therefore, it is not our fault if we will not be able to pay on-time,” he said.

Basak San Nicolas is so far able to pay their bills on-time. But Basak San Nicolas barangay treasurer Joseph Roy Viodor said that their voucher sometimes sits two weeks at the accounting office.

Viodor said it is unfair if they will be penalized for the surcharge if the delay happens during the pre-audit. — (FREEMAN)