NOTE: This story was first published in The Bohol Chronicle’s Sunday print edition.
Bohol’s 3rd district Congresswoman Kristine Alexie B. Tutor minced no words of urging barangay chairmen attending the Liga ng mga Barangay provincial congress to make the liquidation of the funds after the projects funded by it are completed.
The first lady of Candijay town as a better-half of Mayor Christopher Tutor was among the guest speakers of the three-day barangay congress initiated by its president Dr. Romulo Cepedoza and held at Bohol Tropics in the city.
Tutor stressed that while she’s preparing for some release of funds she obtained for hard projects, such as roads in her district this year, the fund may not be downloaded to the barangays due to the backlog of unliquidated funds.
She said that while the national government is looking for the welfare of the barangays, barangays have the obligation to follow the accounting procedures as a matter of policy, hence, no fund release if no liquidation.
The call for an accounting of funds is a must, according to provincial director Jerome Gonzales of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) of Bohol.
The Commission on audit (COA) is also very strict on this score, DILG said.
It was learned that some of the 1,109 barangays in Bohol are having a hard time in securing fund assistance from government agencies and municipalities or province to finance theirrespective projects because they failed to liquidate or make accounting of the fund previously released to them.
Worse is that the newly-assumed barangay officials face court action and even Ombudsman probe for the unliquidated funds they did not commit.
Meanwhile, Congw. Tutor bared that the House of Representatives thru Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano is considering giving attention to concreting local roads as a shift of policy priorities.
She told barangay chairmen that she knew what they feel about the re-blocking of some national roads.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (PDWH) district offices and contractors are at the receiving end because of road-reblocking projects that delayed public commuters/motorists.
Some of these projects have been delayed particularly those located between the towns of Carmen and Dagohoy. And only few having a mandated public information board posted nearby the project site detailing the projects.
Road reblocking is also going on between the towns of Sierra-Bullones and Pilar.
Tutor also assured the barangays that construction of covered courts in the barangays of the district will commence this year with funding from the national government. (rvo)