In a preliminary hearing held on November 11, the University Student Government (USG) Judiciary found an impeachment case filed against former Executive Treasurer Rupert Laurel meritorious on grounds of gross negligence of duty and illegal disbursement of funds. As such, the court will proceed to a hearing on a date still to be determined.
The complaint was filed by the USG Commission on Audit (COA) on October 29 after the discovery of missing funds from revenues generated at the Animo Christmas Bazaar, held in December last year. The COA had originally filed charges on grounds of gross negligence of duty, gross misconduct, and illegal disbursement of funds. After a judicial review and deliberation, the Judiciary did not find the complaint on gross misconduct meritorious.
This impeachment case is the second to be faced by Laurel. Earlier this month, the Judiciary ruled Laurel guilty of gross negligence of duty, which resulted in him being disbarred him from the USG.
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On funds that are allegedly missing
COA Vice Chairman for Audit Jessamine Alvaro stood as the representative of the COA during the pre-hearing, where she argued that during the auditing of documents for the Office of the Executive Treasurer (OTREAS), anomalies were found in the documents submitted for the Animo Christmas Bazaar.
The COA is tasked to examine and audit all accounts involved in the disbursement of funds and resources from any unit of the USG. After a heedful examination of audit documents from the OTREAS for the second term of academic year 2014-2015, the COA found inconsistencies in the revenues presented for the said event.
The petitioners revealed that amounts from the acknowledgment letters for the event, proof that the OTREAS unit received a certain sum of money from the different concessionaires during the bazaar, reflected a total of P358,000 in revenues. However, only P195,000 has been deposited to the OTREAS account for the event.
According to Alvaro, the deposit was made only on April 27 this year, four months after the event was held. The documents were also only surrendered to the COA in September, despite the COA asking for them several months beforehand. Alvaro also explained that the COA had only been made aware of the transaction after it was reflected in a report submitted by the Chairperson on Financial Affairs of the OTREAS last September. Before that, the activity had not been reflected in the accounts of the unit.
No post-activity requirements, including a fundraising activity (FRA) report, have been submitted to the USG Department of Activity Approval and Monitoring and Office of Student Leadership Involvement, Formation and Empowerment for the event. Alvaro stressed that as stipulated in the Treasurer’s Manual, the post-acts should have been processed two weeks after the activity.
“We are unable to confirm the total amount of income [generated from the event], since there was no FRA report submitted,” Alvaro stated. The projected expenses for the event amounted to P9,520, leading COA to question the balance of P153,000 unaccounted for.
Expounding on the argument, the COA filed for gross negligence of duty since OTREAS was not able to provide the supporting documents for the transaction. As for the misconduct, Alvaro clarified that it was filed due to the non-disclosure of pertinent documents. Lastly, COA filed for illegal disbursement because of P153,000 profit allegedly missing.
