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COA recommends sanctions vs DICT officials for delay, non-submission of financial statements
COA recommends sanctions vs DICT officials for delay, non-submission of financial statements
The Commission on Audit (COA) has recommended that sanctions, like suspension of salaries, be imposed on erring officials of the Department of Information and Technology (DICT) for delay or non-submission of financial statements for three consecutive years.
"The DICT did not submit the year-end financial statement for three consecutive years as well as the quarterly financial statement along with the supporting account schedules and sick leaves, which were due on Feb. 14 of each year and 10 days after the end of the quarter, respectively," the COA said in its management letter.
In failing to make timely submissions, the COA said that the DICT's assertions on the completeness and accuracy of its accounts and transactions as of Dec. 31, 2022 could not be established.
Other financial reports supporting the financial statement such as the Aging of Accounts, Schedule of Income Taxes Paid, Schedule of Fund Transfer, Statement of Management Responsibility, Statement of Comparison of Budget and Actual Accounts were not prepared and submitted to the COA, it said.
"It shall be noted that several follow-ups were made to the accounting division yet compliance therewith remained unheeded," COA lamented.
"Further, supporting schedules and subsidiary ledgers (SLs) of the account balances supporting the trial balances (TBs) were not completely submitted," it said.
It noted that the DICT's accounting department only updates the SLs after the completion of the TB. "Thus, the TB submitted without the schedules and SLs supporting the amounts reported therein does not support the DICT's assertions on the correctness and completeness of the account balances reported therein," it said.
It then recommended that the DICT management take appropriate action on the suspension of salary against those who were responsible for the delayed or non-submission of financial statements for the past three years, based on the provisions of Volume 1 of the Government Accounting Manual (GAM) for national government agencies and Presidential Decree No. 1445.