Officers and employees of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) have accumulated P2.594 billion of unliquidated cash advances as of August 2020, the Commission on Audit (COA) said in its 2020 annual audit report.

In a management letter sent to Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas on May 25, 2021, state auditors compelled the poll body’s finance services department to “demand from the accountable officers (AO) the immediate liquidation of their outstanding cash advances which were already overdue.”

“We recommended that the Comelec management… cease from granting additional cash advances to AOs with unliquidated cash advances,” it added.

The report said the unliquidated cash advances due for liquidation were the following:

• P2.414 billion – advances to special disbursing officers;
• P179.170 million – advances to offices and employees; and
• P1090 – advances for payroll.

The largest unliquidated cash advances, amounting to P359 million, were to officers and employees of the provincial election supervisors.

The poll body’s office in Calabarzon came in second with P316 million in unliquidated cash advances.

“In addition, the status report on unliquidated cash advances submitted by the accounting division disclosed that multiple cash advances were granted to AOs as early as 1992 to 2019 even if previous cash advances were not yet liquidated,” the report noted.

In response, the Comelec said it already sent demand letters to AOs who have yet to liquidate their cash advances in December 2020.

The poll body added it has received 7,260 liquidation reports (LRs) since then.

Best efforts

“Rest assured that we will always exert our best efforts to fast track the process of reviewing the LRs submitted to validate if they are compliant with the accounting and auditing standards, rules and regulations prior to recording in the books of accounts,” the Comelec commented in the report.

Presidential Decree 1455 states that “no cash advance shall be given unless for a legally authorized specific purpose.”

The decree added that an additional cash advance shall not be allowed to any official or employee unless their previous cash advance has been settled. — Rappler.com