Return the stolen P9M to the Coffer - Mayor Bona

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN -  The P9 million allegedly stashed by the three former department heads here should be returned to the treasury, according to this town mayor Bona Fe de Vera-Parayno.
Although she pitied the fate that befell them when they were sacked recently by the Civil Service Commission, she declared that it is her job as mayor that whatever amount the accused purportedly  took from the coffer here they should return them.  

Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe de Vera-Parayno during her
last State of the Municipal Address (SOMA).

The three were former Municipal Accountant Evelyn Bernabe, former Municipal Treasurer Susana Bauzon and former Municipal Assistant Municipal Treasurer Marilyn Gonzales.
Parayno warned the personnel of the local government unit (LGU) here to maintain integrity and discipline in serving the government.
The three were administratively charged with grave misconduct after they were found tampering the payroll of this town's LGU, according to Provincial Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued, in a radio interview at Bombo Radyo.
 Baniqued said that the decision of the regional CSC in Region 1 in San Fernando City, La Union was final and executory.
“They could still appeal within 15 days after they received the decision”.
She said that in the investigation led by the Commission on Audit in 2011-2012, it showed that the three committed payroll padding during the time of then Mayor Herminio Romero.
“The COA found out that some amounts did not tally with the total amounts below,” she said.
She cited the accused have signed, for instance, documents that included P2, 500 for each of the three months period in a table that would have a total of almost P8000 but instead it had a total of P20,000. 
“Hindi magkakatugma dahil doon,” Baniqued added.

The CSC 33- page decision signed by CSC-Region 1 director Nestor Sarmiento blamed  Gonzales who committed irregularities in preparing the padded checks while Bernabe and Bauzon tolerated them by failing to perform their duties of safeguarding the finances of the municipal government.
Although the three accused are no longer working at the LGU here, they can still appeal for the case for the sake of due process, the mayor said.

The CSC cited that the omission of Bernabe and Bauzon to notice the irregularities in several payrolls for almost every month in 2011 and the early months of 2012 was highly inexcusable, making the agency conclude that they indeed conspired with Gonzales.
One of the accused according to Baniqued even returned P1.9 million of the LGU's monies to the  town's coffer here.