by Sentinel Times June 24, 2021 Lopez, Quezon Mayor Rachel A. Ubana (Photo from Municipality of Lopez, Quezon FB Page) LOPEZ, Quezon - The r...
June 24, 2021
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| Lopez, Quezon Mayor Rachel A. Ubana (Photo from Municipality of Lopez, Quezon FB Page) |
LOPEZ, Quezon - The raging menace of the Covid-19 pandemic provides the most convenient excuse for the incumbent leader of Lopez, Quezon about an apparent dead-halt in the implementation of her vaunted flagship projects, but fierce critics and detractors-- some are set to challenge her in the 2022 polls-- say hizzoner's performance as head of a first-class municipality is "unreliable."
Attacks on the leadership mettle of Lopez mayor Rachel A. Ubana have reared up and may turn into a groundswell in the wake of a pre-Covid-19 audit plied out by a Commission on Audit team at year-end 2018.
"The municipality did not submit the list of all ongoing programs/projects/activities and those that are to be implemented during the year and its monthly monitoring report," cites the COA team in their audit report.
Couched in a most polite lexicon of government bureaucracy, "unreliable" is used in several instances cited in the COA audit report, in reference to tasks done by the incumbent Lopez administration.
The COA report cited that "balances of Property, Plant, and Equipment accounts with a total book value of P295,778,349.91 (as of 2018-yearend) are unreliable."
Lopez municipality's tax revenues income from "the balances of real property tax (RPT) and special education tax (SET) totaling P90,128,831.30 are unreliable because it was not supported with schedule of individual taxpayers from whom the amount will be collected."
The COA report added that the municipality did not apply the remedies provided by law in collections of delinquent taxes, resulting in uncollected prior years' taxes totaling P84,256,605.08 or 93.48 percent of the total RPT and SET receivables at 2018 yearend. With the reminder, Lopez leadership had to comply to appease auditors.
Short of chiding the stewards of Lopez for being remiss in their tasks, the COA audit noted that "25 development projects with total appropriations of P57,808,641.17 were not implemented during the year while completion of the five projects costing P10,251,526.61 were delayed due to various planning and procurement issues... thus depriving the intended beneficiaries of the desired benefits and services that could be derived from the socio-economic development and environmental outcomes."
"It is the responsibility of every Local Chief Executive to ensure that 20% of the development fund is optimally utilized to help achieve the desirable socio-economic development and environmental outcomes of the LGU."
We tried reaching Mayor Ubana but there is no response.
'Social events ang inaatupag'
Of a 95,167 population count in seven urban and 88 rural barangays, a 126-strong netizen group, Lopez Quezon Community Issue Review on Facebook cites that the 2020 COA Report reaffirm earlier findings and issues that have yet to be resolved.
Rues group stalwart Pablo Yulde: "Mga social events ang inaatupag na nakikita ko naka-post sa social media. Pero ang project implementation and monitoring ay kulang. Pagdating sa totoong public service katulad ng pagpapagawa ng infrastructure/facilities ay walang masyadong pag-aaral na ginagawa para maipatupad ito."
Yulde notes further that the municipality's 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan has yet to be given the go-ahead of the National Solid Waste Management Commission but the municipal government has already begun transactions for a solid waste dumpsite, likely the P5-million land fill development that still calls for, as the COA report cites, a detailed engineering design (DED) preparation.
Garbage woes aside, of more pressing concern in the 25-item COA audit list of pending projects are the water supply systems for Barangays Sta. Elena (with a P1.44-million allocation), Mabanban (P500,000), and Veronica (P500,000). Reason for non-implementation? Lack of detailed engineering design preparation and source validation.
Municipality revenues, which stood at over P262 million in 2018, derived from local taxes, share from internal revenue collections, service and business income and others, can bankroll the local government projects that remain stalled and unimplemented.
'Unreliable'
The COA audit notes that "balances of (equipment) inventories totaling P4,823,065 and corresponding expenses accounts of P3,706,635.66 are unreliable because the Inventory Committee did not conduct the physical count... and did not follow the procedures on proper accounting and reporting of inventories."
COA absolves the municipal mayor on the unreliable inventory of property, plant, and equipment, (PPE) and counsels Ubana to "require the accountable officer to pay the cost of PPE which were found missing and has no request for relief from accountability, if any."
The unaccounted PPE, as COA reckoned totaled P5,428,429.46 covered by the general fund and P23,364, in the special education fund.
Moreover, "balance of Land account of P9,602,930 as of December 31, 2018 is unreliable due to the recording of 13 parcels of land at market values instead of at their purchase cost or fair value for donation and non-recording of one parcel of titled land."
COA also noted that the municipality's "ownership of over 10 parcels of land was not safeguarded"-- four parcels are not titled to the municipality while the owner's copy of titles for the six titled parcels remain not secured from the Registry of Deeds."
Ubana took action and had eased its land problems after the COA behest.
However ,"The municipality was still not yet fully compliant with the five basic environmental laws on preserving and protecting the environment," cites COA and adds that this is due to "inadequate notices to public and monitoring of compliance with the municipal implementing regularions and relaxed imposition of penalty to violators."
Continuing losses
Lopez's chief economic activity for income is the operation of the municipal public market and municipal slaughterhouse that COA found to "continously incur operating losses due to outdated rates of market fees."
COA finds the remedy in a provision of the 1991 Local Government Code which "provides the powers, duties, functions, of the municipal mayor"-- "to initiate and maximize the generation of resources and revenues of the municipality."
Since 2015, the Lopez market and slaughterhouse had been incurring yearly losses, with a 2018 net loss of P1.7 million, including expenses in the cost of improvements and insurance totaling P3.123 million charged to the municipal general fund.
The Sangguniang Bayan secretary cited that the rates of market fees are already outdated since they have not been changed for at least 10 years now, hence contributing to the low income and operating loss.
State auditors may have injected a bit of humor-- rather than say something amiss with municipality's animal dispersal scheme began in 2015 (150 goats, and 10 cattle) that cost taxpayers P2.655 million, COA reported "no inventory report for the animals dispersed."
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