Ozamiz City Mayor fires accountant for dishonesty

OZAMIZ CITY, Philippines —  Acting Mayor Irene Luansing fired her own City  Accountant for dishonesty.

In an order dated January 25, 2018, Luansing dismissed the local government’s City Accountant, Cynthia G. Ferraren, after a probe “found her to have committed serious dishonesty in turning a blind eye to Civil Service rules pertaining to the collection of overtime pay.”

Luansing’s order cited Joint Circular No. 1 series of 2015 issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that only allowed collection of overtime pay by employees up to the rank of Division Head.

As head of the City Accounting Office, Ferraren is a department head, two ranks higher than a division head.

“… Her (Ferraren’s) collecting overtime pay, in particular instance from 7th to 29th January 2017, was unwarranted,” stressed Luansing who became Ozamiz City’s acting mayor after the death of then Mayor Reynaldo O. Parojinog Sr. in the bloody drug raids last July 30, 2017.

Ferraren faced formal administrative charge for serious dishonesty December 4, 2017, during which she was also meted a two-month suspension without pay.

Luansing noted that in Ferraren’s rejoinder to the formal charge, she “admits to have been collecting overtime pay in the 24 years that she is City Accountant hence found the practice perfectly regular.”

Acting as Investigator of the case, the City Legal Officer, Jeffrey James Ocang, said that Ferraren “gravely abused her authority in order to commit the dishonest act…” Ocang recommended that Ferraren be dismissed from the service.

Interviewed over the phone, Luansing’s executive assistant, Ryan Rosauro, said Ferraren could not have been ignorant of the joint issuance by the CSC and DBM as “she is expected to be knowledgeable of this being the local government’s chief due diligence officer.”

Rosauro disclosed that Ferraren has appealed the decision to the CSC, alleging that her dismissal was part of a plan by Luansing to install her own people into key posts in the local government.

“That is far from the truth. What we are instituting here is cleansing of the local bureaucracy, ridding it of corruption and financial malfeasance,” Rosauro explained.-ezc/Newsline.ph