The province of Northern Samar failed to remit a total of P58 million in taxes and mandatory contributions to agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Pag-IBIG, and PhilHealth in 2023, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.
In its 2023 annual audit report, COA said: "Taxes and mandatory contributions of officers and employees of the province, booked up under Due to BIR, GSIS, Pag-IBIG and Philhealth accounts, were not remitted ... thus preventing the national government to utilize earned revenues to finance its priority programs, and may deprive the officials and employees of the province of the full coverage of the services and benefits that could be derived from membership in good standing."
It said that the province's Inter-Agency Payables Year-End Balances showed that the balance due to BIR amounted to P46,919,967.58; due to GSIS was P3,842,646.97; due to Pag-IBIG was P2,521,261.79; and due to PhilHealth was P5,092,924.48. All in all, the total balance due was P58,376,700.82, it also said.
When the audit team members reviewed the general ledger and subsidiary ledgers of the accounts, they discovered deficiencies in the remittances of taxes and mandatory contributions, it noted.
From the amount due to the BIR, the province withheld P165,711,082.57, including P29,949,299.72 from prior years, it said. The province remitted a total of P118,791,114.99 in 2023, which left a year-end balance of P46,919,967.58, it also said.
The GSIS premium contributions and loans of P173,428,162.91, including from prior years of P14,000,180.88, were withheld from the salaries of the offices and employees of the province, COA said. However, the total remittance made in 2023 was P169,585,515.95, which left a year-end balance of P3,842,646.97, it said.
For Pag-IBIG contributions, or those belonging to the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), P13,574,957.44 were withheld from salaries of officials and employees, including P3,186,569.38 withheld from prior years. Since only P11,053,695.65 was remitted in 2023, there was a balance of P2,521,261.79 left, it also said.
The amount of PhilHealth contributions withheld totalled to P19,788,231.52, COA said. With remittances worth P14,695,407.04 made in 2023, there was a remaining balance of P5,092,824.48, it said.
"Ideally, the balance of Due to BIR, GSIS, HDMF, and PhilHealth accounts should be equivalent to zero after remitting the amount withheld within the prescribed period. However, the remittance of the amounts withheld were not strictly observed," the report stated.
By failing to properly remit the taxes and contributions, COA said that state auditors noted that the national government has been prevented from utilizing the earned revenues.
Last March 21, COA said the provincial accountant reported that the reconciliation of Inter-Agency Payables Year-End Balances was ongoing. It said it was assured it will be provided with the list of remittances made in 2024.