GOVERNMENT auditors have exposed a long-running operation by a revenue collector of Davao de Oro province, formerly Compostela Valley, to skim millions from income that was supposed to be remitted to the province’s coffers.
The province’s 2019 audit report released last May 13 named local revenue collection officer Dionisio P. Luna Jr. as having siphoned off P4.52 million off taxes and fees payable to the provincial government.
This came as a surprise to officers and other personnel of the Office of the Provincial Treasurer since Luna has a reputation for reliability and punctuality. Such was the trust placed on him that in 2017, he was named head of the Revenue Division.
It took a sharp-eyed audit team to unmask the collector and unravel his scheme.
Luna’s scam relied on his reputation for submitting all his paper work in order and on time.
With clockwork efficiency, he submitted his Reports of Collection and Deposits and well as the Statement of Accountable Forms when he was supposed to. However, he declared as “consumed” even the accountable forms (AFs) that he failed to remit, realizing that familiarity with his work habits has become a convenient loophole that he can exploit.
The forms are controlled documents that collectors and tellers have to request from the treasurer through filing requisition requests. They contain a summary of how much collection came in during a specific period.
“He unfailingly prepared the monthly statement of accountable forms wherein all AF 51 received during the period were reported. In the ending balance, he declared as consumed even those [forms] not yet remitted. And since no personnel was assigned to validate the truthfulness of the statement, he was able to conceal the unremitted portion,” the audit team pointed out.
In his report of collections, he only indicated the forms that he intends to liquidate — always ensuring that the ending balance on the accountable forms conformed to the beginning balance of the subsequent report so the irregularities remained concealed from first glance.
The scheme was blown wide open when auditors started a reconciliation of all issued accountable forms and several turned out to have been requested by Luna although these were not turned in.
Noting the discrepancy, the auditors demanded that the Provincial Treasurer explain the “missing” accountable forms and to clarify if they were issued or not within the audit cut-off dates.
Tracing the forms’ whereabouts led to Luna and the discovery that P4.646 million of his collections went astray. Three checks surrendered by the collector containing the sum of P128,250 brought down his accountability to P4.52 million.
Demand letters sent to Luna and an order to submit written explanations went unheeded.
Following the discovery of the fraud, the Provincial Treasurer’s Office said it has put up stricter checks and balance in the recording of collection and posting.
It also required a comprehensive review of the treasury operation to strengthen the internal control in its cash management by keeping a close monitoring on accountable forms and the turnover of collections.
