COA questions city’s SEF disbursements

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) ordered the Cebu City Government to explain and justify the spending of P56.3 million from the Special Education Fund (SEF) for various expenditures, including the granting of P10,000 cash assistance to each of the public school teachers in the city.

In a report submitted to the Office of the Mayor, COA Cluster Director for Local Government Delia Monte de Ramos explained that the state auditors strongly believed that such expenditure is considered irregular.

It was Mayor Michael Rama who ordered the granting of such benefit to each of the teachers and to charge it against the SEF despite objections from City Accountant Diwa Cuevas and then City Treasurer Emma Villarete.

Monte de Ramos said Section 272 of the Local Government Code provides that the SEF shall be utilized only for the operation and maintenance of public schools, construction and repair of school buildings, facilities and equipment, educational research, purchase of books and periodicals, and sports development.

The law provides that it will be the Local School Board that will determine and approve any expenses that will be charged against the SEF budget.

Monte de Ramos said the term irregular expenditures means that it was incurred without conforming to the prescribed guidelines or the transaction deviated from the approved standards.

It was learned that the P10,000 performance incentive given to each of the national and locally-paid teaching and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) was on top of the other legally authorized benefits like the 13th month pay, cash gift and productivity enhancement incentives.

The COA official said the giving of such incentives and charging it to the SEF may affect other vital projects necessary to carry out the objectives of the SEF, which is equivalent to one percent of the real property taxes.

But the Cebu City Legal Office’s opinion is that the disbursement of the additional cash assistance to the teachers is not illegal even if it was taken from the SEF.

Lawyer Ferdinand Cañete of the City Legal Office argued that what Section 272 of the Local Government Code provides is that the proceeds of SEF shall be allocated and used for the operation and maintenance of public schools, construction and repair of school buildings and others project as determined and approved by the local school board.

“The granting of financial assistance to public school teachers of Cebu City is in truth granting of emoluments and allowances to public school teachers falling within the ambit of operation and maintenance of public schools,” Cañete said. — (FREEMAN)