NAGA CITY --- “My administration is very transparent, and we have been working closely with the Commission of Audit,” Governor Luis Raymund Villafuerte told Bicol Mail in the wake of the decision of the Citizen Crime Watch (CCW) and Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) to take part in the filing of graft and corruption charges against ranking officials of the provincial government of Camarines Sur.

        Villafuerte said he was not rattled by the action of the CCW and the VACC. “Wala kaming itinatago (We are not hiding anything),” he said.

        According to the governor, the COA audit report in 2007 only stated that the provincial government funds were in disarray. “The COA did not mention in the report that there were missing funds,” adding that some of the discrepancies were “inherited” from past administrations.

        In 2004, Villafuerte became governor of Camarines Sur, the largest province in Bicol Region in area and population, his father, now Camarines Sur Second District Representative Luis Villafuerte.

        The governor admitted that the provincial government had not been prompt in submitting the reports required by the COA that was why it (the COA) reported that the provincial government had unaccounted funds.

         “But since the report was completed 10 months ago, we in the provincial government have been in the process of complying with [the report’s] recommendations in close coordination with the COA. Certainly, there are no missing funds; and there is no graft and corruption.”

        Last Tuesday, the CCW announced through its chairman Jose Malvar Villegas that it, along with the VACC, would take part in the filing of a graft and corruption accusations against several ranking officials of the provincial government including the governor.

        Provincial Board Member Carlo Magno Batalla who had charged Villafuerte last July with “violation” of the code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees and “violation” of the anti-graft and corrupt practices act, said he would file a petition for preventive suspension of all the respondents in the graft and corruption charge to be filed next week with the assistance of the CCW and the VACC.

        Batalla, a provincial board member from Sipocot town in the first district of Camarines Sur, is a known political opponent of Villafuerte.

        Dismissing Batalla as a “nobody,” Villafuerte said he was ready to face charges to be filed before the office of the Ombudsman, reiterating that they were not doing any anomalous transaction in the provincial government.

        Last week, it was reported in this newspaper that the financial records of the provincial government of Camarines Sur in 2007 were in disarray, as reflected in a report of the Commission on Audit obtained by the Bicol Mail.

        In its report on the 2007 financial operations of the province, the COA found a discrepancy of over P812 million in the provincial government’s property, plant and equipment inventory which could not ascertained due to the provincial government’s inability to complete the physical count and reconcile the records of the accounting and general services offices.

        Moreover, the report said, the provincial government did not submit some accounts for 2007 amounting to about P20.8 million, “thus, the validity, legality and reliability of the transactions could not be determined.”

        Some constituents and ordinary taxpayers in the province expressed shock over the 2007 the COA report.

        Valeriano Babilonia, 63, resident of this city, said that discrepancies in the disbursements of provincial funds must be properly accounted for since it concerned taxpayer’s money.

         “Any excess amounts from the appropriated budget minus actual obligations should be properly accounted for and must be returned to the provincial coffers,” he added.

        “If that would not be accounted for, it would set precedence to the next batch of leaders who will rein over the province.”

        Felipe Madrona, 55, a former barangay official from Tinambac, Camarines Sur, echoed the sentiments of Babilonia, saying that provincial government funds were taxpayers’ money that it should be properly accounted for.

        The Local Government Code of 1991 provides that fiscal responsibility shall, to the greatest extent, be shared by all those exercising authority over the financial affairs, transactions, and operations of the government agency which, in the case of the provincial capitol in Cadlan, Pili, Camarines Sur, involve, among others, the provincial governor, provincial budget officer, provincial treasurer, provincial accountant, provincial engineer, and the head of the general services and procurement.