OFFICIALS of Benguet State University (BSU) have failed to persuade the Commission on Audit (COA) to reverse a 2016 ruling of the COA Cordillera Administrative Region that upheld the notice of disallowance on its payment of collective negotiation agreement (CNA) incentives totaling P16.28 million for the year 2015.
The COA Commission Proper denied the petition for review filed by BSU officials for lack of merit and affirmed COA-CAR’s finding that the notice disallowance was valid.
This means that all university officials who had a participation in authorizing, approving, and certifying the disbursement of public funds for the CNA incentive are jointly liable to refund the full amount.
On the other hand, rank and file personnel who only had a passive role as recipient of the disallowed cash incentive are only required to return the same amount they received.
Audit records showed the audit team issued a notice of disallowance on the ground that the fund source cited by BSU for the grant of the cash incentive failed to specify where and how the supposed savings were derived.
BSU said money for the incentives came from “Cost-cutting and Systems Improvement Measures” and “Grievance Machinery.” However, the COA noted the documents were only prepared in 2016 while the incentives were paid a full year earlier.
The 2015 General Appropriations Act required that the cost-cutting undertaken be specifically identified under an agency’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) allocations.
In the absence of such clarification, auditors said no determination could be made if the savings came from MOOE and whether the cost-cutting did not sacrifice efficiency and effectiveness which are conditions set under Administrative Order No. 135 and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Circular No. 2015-2.
“The ND was properly issued considering that the CNA of BSU did not identify the cost-cutting measures required in Sec. 74 of the 2015 GAA. Without identifying the cost-cutting measures, savings from which payment of the CNAs could not be determined,” the COA pointed out.
