Ilocos Sur town flagged over travel expenses

The Commission on Audit (CoA) has warned San Juan town in Ilocos Sur province over its inefficient usage of daily travel expenses, which state auditors said exceeded the required set budget.

In its 2023 report, CoA found that San Juan booked a hotel and rented a van through a travel agency, resulting in the municipality incurring a higher lodging cost and exceeding the required allowance.

The audit showed that San Juan resorted to a travel agency to book hotel accommodation, which was used for training and seminars, in the amount of P481,786.

The van was also rented through the assistance of a travel agency for P108,500 and was used to transport four officials to their training destination. The auditing body, however, deemed this “unnecessary” given that the local government unit (LGU) has various vehicles that could be used for the same purpose.

“The foregoing practices resulted in the inefficient usage of LGU’s funds of which could be allocated to other developmental programs or project of the LGU,” CoA said.

Moreover, such a system runs counter to Sections 5 and 7 set forth by Executive Order (eo) 77, prescribing rules and regulations and rates of expenses and allowances for government personnel’s official local and foreign travels.

Section 7 of EO 77 mandates that the agency’s head determine the mode of transportation and type of hotel/lodging to be availed, which in all cases shall be the most economical and efficient.

The exact section provides that only ordinary public conveyance or customary modes of transportation shall be used, while the use of chartered trips, special hires of public utilities, garage cars, and other extraordinary means of transportation shall not be allowed unless justified by the prevailing circumstances.