By Gerome Dalipe IV
State auditors flagged the officials of the Iloilo Provincial Government over delayed remittance of the collected Capitol employees’ withheld taxes, loan payments, or their contributions to the concerned government agencies amounting to P50.603 million.
The Commission on Audit (COA), in its 2022 annual audit report, said the withheld amounts were not fully remitted to the agencies as of Dec.31, 2022, and thus were not immediately available to the concerned government agencies to be utilized for beneficial purposes.
Such practice violated the provisions of the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) Law of 2009; the National Health Insurance Act of 2013; and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Act of 1997, which require government agencies to withhold the employees’ contributions and loans and to remit the same together with the employer contribution within the reglementary period.
Records showed that Capitol’s due to BIR, GSIS, Pag-IBIG, and PhilHealth account balances for its 12 district hospitals reached P50.603 million as of December 31, 2022. Such an amount was not fully remitted within the reglementary period. The total remittance made in the following month was only P24.819 million, leaving an unremitted amount of P25.784 million.
The auditors also noted that some amounts withheld from the employees either have not yet been reconciled or remitted for more than one or three years.
For instance, there was about P25.784 million total roll-forward balance that was not only due for remittance, but some P3.481 million is still subject to either reconciliation, adjustments, reclassification, or refund. On the other hand, only P22.303 million was identified for remittances in the subsequent months.
For the amounts payable to the GSIS, the person in charge told auditors that when the employees are promoted, the new salary must be updated in the GSIS system by the Human Resource Management and Development Office.
However, the in-charge in the Accounting Office already computed the deductions and remittance and only later discovered that a higher amount should have been deducted.
Thus, any additional adjustments will no longer be included in the remittance of those withheld in December 2022.
“Due to the non-remittance of the amount withheld within the reglementary period, funds were not immediately available to the concerned government agencies to be utilized for beneficial purposes,” the auditors said.
During the exit conference, the provincial accountant told the state auditors that about P32.990 million of the total P35.846 million had been remitted from January to March 2023.
The Provincial Government is coordinating with the treasurer’s office to remit the remaining balance to the due to BIR account.
He also said that refunds to the employees and adjustments were already made in the books to correct the balances.
On the other hand, the human resource office in charge assured that the remittances of the provincial and district hospitals would be timely and correctly paid to minimize or eliminate errors in recording and posting of the subject accounts.
The government auditors also urged the Capitol’s department heads to promptly remit the amounts withheld to the concerned government agencies within the reglementary period.
