Mtcc-Occ v. Sevilla

EN BANC A.M. No. P-06-2140 June 26, 2006 [Formerly OCA I.P.I. No. 06-2-51-MTCC] Re: Report on the Financial Audit Conducted in the MTCC-OCC, Angeles City. PER CURIAM: Before us is an administrative case which arose from the Memorandum1 of Dindo V. Sevilla, Team Leader of the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) Financial Audit Team (Team) to then Court Administrator (now a member of this Court) Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr. dated February 3, 2006 charging Aurelia C. Lugue (respondent) of gross negligence in the performance of duty and gross dishonesty. On February 14, 2005, the Team conducted an audit on the books of accounts and a surprise cash count in the Office of the Clerk of Court (OCC), Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC), Angeles City.

The surprise cash count revealed an initial shortage of ~~P~~ 700,025.00 in the Fiduciary Fund (FF) which prompted the Team to conduct a detailed and comprehensive financial audit on all the books of accounts of the court. The cash presented to the Team totaling ~~P~~ 16,000.00 together with the additional amount of ~~P~~ 84,000.00 given by the cashier was deposited2 on the following day, February 15, 2005 to the FF account in the total amount of ~~P~~ 100,000.00. On February 18 and 23, 2005, respondent deposited3 the amount of ~~P~~ 500,000.00 and ~~P~~ 5,025.00, respectively, to the FF account thereby restituting totally the audited shortage amounting to ~~P~~ 605,025.00.

In a letter4 dated March 2, 2005, Clerk of Court Anita G. Nunag (CoC Nunag) required respondent to explain in writing how and why she incurred the shortage of ~~P~~ 605,025.00. In her explanation5 dated March 7, 2005, respondent admitted that she was remiss in her collecting functions, giving as reasons the following: she is the collecting and disbursing officer at the same time; while she gives priority to her disbursing functions, she failed to record her collections daily in the three cashbooks i.e., Fiduciary Fund (FF), Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) and Special Allowance for Justices and Judges (SAJJ), which resulted to the accumulated unrecorded transactions; she attends to the needs of litigants with claims for refund of their cash bonds including the preparation, processing of vouchers and withdrawals from the bank, thus her failure to record promptly the transactions in their specific/corresponding cashbooks.

Respondent reasoned that the alleged shortage of ~~P~~ 605,025.00 was due to her failure to record her collection for Official Receipt (O.R.) Nos. 15156288 to 15156433, thus, she had difficulty in determining how much to deposit to the FF account. In her explanation6 dated February 16, 2005 addressed to Acting Executive Judge Aida E. Layug, respondent averred that as regards the withdrawal of cash bond, she would first check the Fiduciary receipts whether the same were already deposited or not. If the concerned O.R.s were not yet deposited, she will refund the amount from her present collections and will not withdraw from the FF account although the withdrawal slip is made and signed by the proper authorities.

And due to the said process, she can no longer deposit to the said account the undeposited O.R.s as the same were already refunded to the claimants out of her present collection. In her Explanation/Answer7 dated March 7, 2005 addressed to the Audit Team, CoC Nunag explained that she was not in a position to explain the transactions as regards: a) the Clerk of Court General Fund (GF); b) unwithdrawn interests from prior years in the amount of ~~P~~ 7,481.80; c) unwithdrawn interests from January 2003 to December 2004 (particularly the first and second quarters of 2003); and d) the confiscated/forfeited cash bonds not withdrawn from the FF since March 1999, as she assumed office as CoC of the OCC, MTCC, Angeles City only on August 16, 2003.

She claimed good faith and oversight over the amount of ~~P~~ 51.20 pertaining to Special Allowance for the Judiciary (SAJ) which resulted to an over-remittance of ~~P~~ 40.00 and ~~P~~ 11.20 on September 2004 and February 9, 2005, respectively. The ~~P~~ 5,000.00 shortage in the JDF and over-remittance of ~~P~~ 5,000.00 to the FF resulted from an erroneous deposit made to the FF. The same, however, was corrected through a credit advice from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), Angeles Branch.

With regard to the undeposited collections of respondent from November 2, 2004 to February 14, 2005, she explained that she was shocked and surprised and did not know how the respondent managed to do it because they submitted balanced Monthly Reports for the months of November and December, 2004, adding that in good faith, she was not remiss in strictly monitoring the respondent to the extent of her (CoC Nunag's) accounting ability. And to prove her innocence, she attached a copy of respondent's affidavit attesting that she (CoC Nunag) had no knowledge and consent to the undeposited collections. With regard to the marriage solemnization fees, the same were already settled.

On confiscated/forfeited cash bonds, she reasoned that she is not in a position to explain the unwithdrawn confiscated/forfeited cash bonds from the FF since March 1999 in the amount of ~~P~~ 625,600.00 because she assumed office only on August 16, 2003. For her term, she was not able to withdraw the corresponding amount for the confiscated/forfeited cash bonds for the reason that the forfeitures/confiscations received were only submitted by the respondent on February 15, 2005 when the same were asked by the Team. She averred that the records were not given to her by the respondent despite the fact that the records were being asked of her (respondent).

And that she already complied with the withdrawal of ~~P~~ 625,600.00 from the FF account on March 3, 2005 and thereafter deposited to the JDF account on the same day The Team submitted its report8 containing their significant audit findings, to wit: Based on the records presented to us by Clerk of Court Nunag, here are our significant findings: A. CLERK OF COURT GENERAL FUND A.1 Reconciliation of the collections and deposits of the General Fund for the period December 2002 to December 31, 2003 For General Fund (GF) Total Collections from December 2002 to December 31, 2003 ~~P~~ 475,164.60 Less: Total Remittances made during the same period 475,364.60 Balance of Accountability as of December 31, 2003 (Overage)