THE Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday affirmed a ruling of the Court of Appeals and the Ombudsman finding a former Education department undersecretary administratively liable in connection with the purchase of vehicles amounting to P21.5 million in 1998 without public bidding.

In a 15-page decision, the Court’s Second Division through Justice Dante Tinga denied, for lack of merit, the petition filed by Victor Andres Manhit seeking the reversal of the decision of the Court of Appeals issued on October 3, 2002, finding him guilty of simple misconduct.

The SC cited that “no reversible error has been committed” by the appellate court. Justices Leonardo Quisumbing, Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio Morales and Presbitero Velasco Jr. concurred.

Records showed that on December 16, 1998, then-Education Secretary Andrew Gonzales requested financial assistance from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) allegedly for the purchase of office equipment.

The request was approved by the LBP, which allocated P12 million as donation to the then-Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS). In connection with the said donation, then-DECS Undersecretary Antonio A.S. Valdes wrote to the LBP manager of the Pasig Control Branch requesting the opening of a special account.

Thus, LBP opened up a special account for the DECS to which the P12- million donation and the interest from other DECS accounts were credited.

The said numbered account, according to the records, is a checking account with no account name and was not reflected in the DECS books of accounts.

Subsequently, the DECS purchased vehicles worth P21.5 million with funding having been sourced from the said special account. The procurement of the vehicles was made without any public bidding and without any authority from the Office of the President.

The Fact-Finding and Intelligence Bureau of the Office of the Ombudsman filed an administrative complaint before the Administrative Abjudication Bureau against Manhit and several other DECS officials for failure to observe the guidelines on government accounting in connection with the receipt and donations from LBP, allowing the use of proceeds of the donations for a purpose other than that for which the same were granted, failure to comply with the rules on procurement of government vehicles and having taken part in the illegal disbursement of the donated funds through conspiracy by silence for having been the principal beneficiaries of the said illegal transactions.

On August 10, 2001, the Ombudsman found the petitioner, together with the former Education secretary and former undersecretary Bartolome Carale, guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, aggravated by the offense of simple misconduct.

The Ombudsman ordered Manhit and Carale to pay a fine equivalent to six months of their respective salaries while respondent was meted out the penalty of fine equivalent to five months of his salary.

Manhit filed a petition for review but was denied by the appellate court, prompting him to elevate the case before the SC.

The SC, however, did not give credence to the claim of Manhit that he did not violate existing accounting and auditing rules since his position did not require him to report the existence of the subject special account.

Manhit claimed that while he was aware of the donation made, he had no knowledge of the special account where the said donation was eventually deposited, as he was not even aware of its existence since he was not even a signatory to the said account.

He, however, admitted having signed one check without having the authority to do so. Since he was not an authorized signatory to the special account, his signature appearing in the check has no legal effect and was not sufficient to serve as basis for filing a complaint against him.

The Court, however, noted that the petitioner cannot dispute that he signed a check drawn against the special account which was used to purchase a vehicle.

“Petitioner’s signing the check is an indication not only of his awareness of the existence of the special account but also his recognition that his signature could pave the way for the encashment of the check, as it in fact did,” the SC added.

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THE Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday affirmed a ruling of the Court of Appeals and the Ombudsman finding a former Education department undersecretary administratively liable in connection with the purchase of vehicles amounting to P21.5 million in 1998 without public bidding.