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Mandaue City Administrator Briccio Joseph Boholst yesterday justified the practice of allowing city officials and personnel to avail of cash advances to provide “a fast (and) responsive delivery of services” to city residents.
Boholst, in response to questions raised by city councilors over the P6.5 million cash advances incurred by Mayor Jonas Cortes’ top subordinates, assured that these advances made by department heads, including him, and other employees were in the process of being liquidated.
“The trade-off there is hold the activity or not to have it. So which would you want?” Boholst asked of his P450,000 cash advance for Mandaue City’s participation in the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo festival held last August.
Boholst said he would not take it against Councilor Emiliano Rosal for reminding them of the liquidation, saying, “It is good that there are a lot of us who will closely watch these cash advances.”
The city administrator said that he would rather not have cash advances were it not for time constraints. He said he only agreed to sign his cash advance, the first he had taken, after he assigned two of his staff to closely monitor the fund releases and receipts.
When he started as city administrator, Boholst said he always made sure that employees who availed of cash advances should be able to liquidate the amounts as soon as possible.
“There is nothing irregular about availing cash advances; it is (how long) the liquidation (is completed) that (is an) issue,” Boholst said.
Boholst said that as far as his cash advance was concerned, he submitted his liquidation documents to the city’s accounting department a few days ago and were now in the process of validation.
“I am sure I am still within the prescribed period for liquidating cash advances,” he pointed out.
The other officials and employees with cash advances were also collating their supporting documents and would be able to submit their liquidation reports soon, Boholst said.
Mayor Cortes could not be reached for comment yesterday as he was in Manila with other mayors of the country to attend a meeting with the League of Cities.
Rosal, during Tuesday's sessions, reminded Cortes to order the liquidation of around P6.5 million worth of cash advances made by employees and department heads based on the balance sheets of June 30, 2008.
During the term of former mayor Thadeo Ouano, there were about P19.5 million in cash advances that remained unliquidated for a period of roughly 10 years, from 1997 to March 2007, according to data compiled from the Commission on Audit’s annual audit reports.
Some of the advances were already liquidated and paid off by former officials but there were still “several millions” that remained unliquidated, Boholst said.
