COA flags 2022 Canada trip of Cebu City’s ex-mayor
CEBU CITY—When it rains, it pours.
Recently dismissed Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, still battling the Office of the Ombudsman directive removing him from office, has another obstacle to face.
This time, the Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered Rama, and his then City Administrator Collin Rosell, to return the P498,000 they withdrew from the local government treasury for their trip to Vancouver, Canada, from Aug. 19 to Aug. 25, 2022.
“We disallowed this in audit because the travel and expenses were not approved by the secretary of the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government),” said the COA in its audit report dated Oct. 31.
State auditors cited section 10, paragraph 8 of Executive Order (EO) 77, issued by then President Rodrigo Duterte on March 15, 2019, which states that official foreign travel and payment of expenses must be approved by the Interior secretary or his or her authorized representative for local government workers regardless of the length of travel abroad and the number of delegates.
The COA said it gave Rama and Rosell 90 days to submit a copy of the DILG travel authority or approval to confirm that the travel was authorized, justifying the use of public funds.
“The required document was not submitted within the specified period, so issuing a notice of disallowance was deemed appropriate,” it said.
When a government transaction is disallowed, either due to “irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant or illegal,” the public funds used for this transaction must be returned to the government by the people who approved of it.
Aside from Rama and Rosell, who was then the secretary to the mayor, the other officials who went with the mayor to Canada were Karla Paula Henry-Ammann, then executive director of the city’s Sister City Commission; and Rama’s former protocol officer, Cinbeth Orellano.
Rama and the three other former city personnel went to Canada upon invitation from the Vancouver-Kensington Constituency Office for the historic enthronement of the image of Sto. Niño at the St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Agassiz, British Columbia.
The COA, however, noted that the authority of the travels for the three other personnel was only given by Rama, and did not have the authority from the secretary of the DILG, in violation of EO 77.
Out of town
Rama and Rosell had yet to issue their statement regarding the issue.
Rama, who is seeking to recapture the city’s mayoral seat in May next year, was out of town while Rosell was detained at the Waterfront Police Station on Friday after he was arrested by policemen for alleged usurpation of authority.
Rosell, along with three other lawyers and more than 100 of Rama’s supporters stormed the mayor’s office inside the Executive Building on Friday, claiming that the assumption of then Cebu City Vice Mayor Raymond Garcia as mayor was no longer valid after the six-month suspension of Rama lapsed on Nov. 6.
Rosell signed a memorandum that he was back as city administrator and refused to leave the building.
The anti-graft office placed Rama and seven other city officials on a six-month preventive suspension pending an investigation on their alleged failure to pay the salaries of at least four employees for seven months.
Rama started serving his suspension on May 10, but before he could fully serve it on Nov. 6, the Ombudsman issued another order on Oct. 3, this time dismissing him from service for nepotism and grave misconduct for appointing his two brothers-in-law to government posts. The order carried a perpetual disqualification from public service.
Garcia told reporters on Friday that he has no plans of stepping down unless ordered to do so by either the Ombudsman, the courts or the DILG.
