City Mayor Dan N. Lim warned that "heads will roll" on the recent discovery of an unsigned check of the vice mayor's office which was encashed without the knowledge of Vice Mayor Nuevas T. Montes.
He told the Chronicle yesterday that he can not tolerate this anomalous operation at the city hall which is a glaring insult to the reputation of maintaining good governance in the city government.

MAYOR DAN N. LIM

Three legislative assistants from the offices of city kagawads Macky Olario, Urbano Lagunay and Danilo Bantugan, and a cashier at the City Treasurer's office (CTO) are in hot water involving this anomalous transaction, the mayor disclosed. During his weekly "Mayor's Report" over dyRD yesterday, Lim said this probe is one way of protecting the people's taxes in line with the thrust of fighting graft and corruption. Lim created last Friday a three-man investigating body to look into the matter. He appointed Executive Assistant Mark Monton as chair with Mario Llyod Guiterrez, human resources manage-ment office chief and Ed Macalandag, city planning and deve-lopment officer as members.

He ordered the body to commence its investigation tomorrow while he requested for its findings and recommendations within 24 hours.

He expects the city councilors to help expedite the investigation involving their legislative assistants.

The case stemmed from the unauthorized encashment of P84,000 intended for a scheduled "Lakbay Aral" to Baguio City among senior staff of the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

Vice Mayor Montes, in a separate interview with the Chronicle yesterday said she felt "betrayed and insulted" when these three legislative assistants worked out the illegal transaction to encash the check which she did not sign as she was in Bacolod City for an official trip.

"This is a very dangerous practice," the vice mayor declared, which demand an immediate investigation. She was not sure if such illegal practice is also being done in other departments.

Montes admitted to the Chronicle that those allegedly involved in the encashment wanted to meet her last week. However, she declined while her office continues to make its own investigation.

Meantime, Lim likewise assured to conduct a personal check on reports that some city hall employees appear arrogant in dealing with the public. He personally received the feedback during his weekly radio program over dyRD yesterday.

This alarmed the mayor as the recent Bohol Poll conducted by the HNU Research Center showed that City Hall got 2% only in customer satisfastion from the 100 respondents of the opinion polling.

The low service-satisfaction rating came even as the Lim administration generated a high mark of 60% of those who claim that this administration is far better than the previous administration.

"However, this does not spare us to think on how we can further improve our brand of service,"Lim said, citing that the low "service satisfaction" rating is indicative on the need to improve customer relation service at the city hall.