MANILA, 9 June — The latest audit of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) questioned the reliability of all Livelihood and Regular Loans amounting to 186.98 million pesos.
The unpublished audit dated Dec. 31, 1999 and made by a Commission on Audit (COA) team headed by resident auditor Maria M. Bautista recommended that additional support staff be tasked "to update the aging schedule and to comply for its regular and prompt submission for confirmation to ascertain the validity and reliability of said documents."
"As of Dec. 31, 1999, OWWA has granted a total of P47.84 million for regular loans and a total of P139.14 for livelihood loans," the report said.
"However, as in last year and in previous years, these accounts were not confirmed due to inadequate records such as incomplete data of loan availers."
As a whole, the audit team said that the cash in bank balance was unreliable due to unadjusted reconciling items in the books of the agency and in the bank balances.
This in turn caused a P50.39 difference imputed to bank accounts closed without verification and a negative balance of P2.9 million that were all charged to Prior Years Adjustment Account.
The COA team recommended that agency reconciling items should be adjusted in the books to reflect reliable balances in the financial statements. "All bank accounts should have Bank Reconciliation Statements for verification of bank account balances," the report said.
Furthermore, the audit unearthed the fact that there was an unreconciled difference in fixed assets of P36.74 million between the accounting records of P79.25 million and the actual count of P42.5 million as a result of physical inventory of these assets.
The audit team recommended that this difference be reconciled.
The team also found that the probability of collection of receivables totaling P54.2 million from various national government and travel agencies is doubtful.
National government agencies alone owed OWWA P37.9 million including a receivable of P82,313.91 from the Overseas Workers Investment Fund (OWIF), a non-existent government agency.
Nevertheless, the team proposed that OWWA maximize efforts to collect on these receivables by sending a statement of account or talk to the agency concerned regarding these receivables.
There were also cash advances amounting to P148.34 million which were unliquidated by the end of the year. "Analysis disclosed that the bulk of these cash advances were granted to welfare officers and center coordinators from the different posts abroad," the report said.
The report required all accountable officers to liquidate immediately all their unliquidated cash advances. The report suggested that the salaries of these accountable officers be withheld until such time that the cash advances have been fully liquidated.
