The “inappropriate” money declared on several banks by the City Government of Caloocan was inherited from the previous administration, and in the financial reports, it took Mayor Oscar “Oca” Malapitan a year of his term to have this fixed.
This was the explanation by Caloocan City Accountant Amy Bucalen to reports regarding missing P192 million in funds, according to the 2019 Annual Audit Report of the Commission on Audit (COA).
“This is (related to) real properties. After Mayor Oca sat as mayor, it went missing. Mayor Oca’s administration faced plenty of problems when he began his term in 2013, and this is one of those cases. The bank reconciliation of the previous administration has not been updated, and there are no documents left for us to organize it,” Bucalen said.
During Malapitan’s term, all documents of the City Government’s transactions are updated, even the annual audit submitted to COA. The bank reconciliation is also carried out monthly in accordance to COA guidelines, she said.
A year after Malapitan sat as mayor in 2013, the city government’s annual audit report was given a COA grade of “qualified” or “satisfactory” from a grade of “disclaimer” or “worst” in 2012.
In 2017, Caloocan under Malapitan’s leadership was also recognized by the COA as the Most Outstanding Accounting Office throughout the National Capital Region for its proper and timely annual audit report.
“All audit reports by the City Government in Mayor Oca’s term are done regularly and properly. There are no missing funds and all of this is assured by our City Mayor, that funds are being used for the citizens,” Bucalen said.