City Hall officials and employees with unliquidated cash advances were urged to explain. “This is the only way to get to the bottom of this controversy,” said City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso.
The details of the P6,478,903.46 unliquidated cash advances was finally released by City Auditor Teresita Irig after receiving orders from COA Chairman Reynaldo Villar who had been informed by Veloso that copies of which are withheld by the city auditor and city accountant Kurt Bungabong.
Under COA rules, there are two types of cash advances – regular and special. A regular cash advance are those released to disbursing officers (ex.: for salaries and wages) while special cash advances are for official travels.
Elected officials can be granted cash advances for their official travel expenses while appointive officials may be granted advances but limited to their cash bond to the Bureau of Treasury which is renewed every year.
A cash advance for local travel should be liquidated within 30 days and foreign travels in 60 days.
The vice mayor notes that there are several accounts in the list that are long overdue, and a number of them have remained unliquidated for more than a year now.
