9.3 Procedures for Lost, Stolen, or Damaged Accountable Forms and Cash

Missing, Damaged, and Spoiled Accountable Forms

Spoiled or cancelled forms

A clerical error does not authorize erasure, destruction, or removal of an accountable form. Follow the cancellation method prescribed for the form and system: mark the original and required copies cancelled or spoiled, record the reason and replacement serial where applicable, retain the copies in the controlled sequence, and include the item in the accountability report. Preserve the payer's correct receipt and the collector's trail without reusing the cancelled serial.

Reconcile every serial as issued, unused, cancelled, spoiled, returned, or missing. A cancellation rate outside the normal pattern, repeated cancellation by one collector, or a cancellation just below a turnover cutoff is an exception to investigate. It is not automatically fraud, but it requires source documents, supervisory review, and comparison with collections and deposits.

First response to loss, theft, or destruction

When forms cannot be located, stop further issue from the affected range, secure remaining stock, and perform an immediate count. Record the form name and version, quantity, denomination if any, exact inclusive serials, assigned custodian, last known use, date and place discovered, and surrounding access. Notify the local treasurer, management, COA auditor, BLGF, law enforcement, depository, or other offices to the extent required by the controlling issuance and the event.

For theft, fire, disaster, or forced entry, preserve the scene, access logs, video, inventory records, police or fire reports, witness accounts, and system data. Do not print a duplicate range, backdate a cancellation, or enter a false zero-value transaction to make the stock card balance. Replacement stock receives its own authorized serial identity.

COA Circular No. 84-233 provides notice procedures for lost accountable forms. Apply the circular to the covered form and follow its required content, transmittal, and publication process, including identification of the affected serials. Use the exact current procedure rather than expanding it from memory to an unsupported universal recipient list. The purpose is to prevent fraudulent use and alert offices and the public that the missing instruments are not valid evidence of payment.

Measuring the accountability

A prevalued ticket has an identifiable face-value exposure. A blank amount-completed receipt creates a different risk and does not prove a specific sum was collected merely because the leaf is missing. Reconcile collection reports, taxpayer accounts, deposits, adjacent serials, duplicate copies, and electronic logs to determine whether money was received or diverted.

A shortage, missing form, or broken control is an audit fact to investigate. It does not by itself conclusively prove malversation, graft, or dishonesty. Identify custody, access, duty, action, fault, and evidence for each person. Preserve the difference between restoring funds, settling an audit accountability, imposing an administrative penalty, making a bond claim, and proving a criminal offense.

Relief from accountability under Section 73

Section 73 of Presidential Decree No. 1445 covers government funds or property lost in transit or through fire, theft, other casualty, or force majeure. The accountable officer must immediately notify COA or the auditor concerned and ordinarily submit the application for relief within thirty days from the occurrence. The same sentence allows a longer period that COA, after due evaluation, may permit in a particular case. The thirty-day period therefore should not be called unextendible or an automatic jurisdictional dismissal rule.

The application should establish the occurrence, amount or items lost, custody, prompt notice, security measures, absence of fault or negligence, and steps taken after discovery. Evidence depends on the event and current COA requirements; it may include the sworn account, police or fire reports, witness statements, inventory and serial records, cash examination, bank evidence, bond data, photographs, access logs, and proof of required notice. Avoid inventing a fixed number of witnesses, a universal monetary delegation threshold, or an automatic result not found in the current rule.

COA evaluates the application and supporting evidence. Relief is not earned merely because a police report describes a robbery, and it is not necessarily defeated by a filing after thirty days if COA has allowed a longer period. A finding of fault, negligence, or connivance weighs against relief. The officer must use the authorized review or appeal route for an adverse decision.

Accounting and control remediation

Do not write off an accountability before lawful authority exists. Record the loss, claim, restitution, bond recovery, or relief decision under the applicable accounting rules and retain the link to the original serials and incident. Any recovery from the officer, insurer, printer, bank, or third party must be separately receipted and reconciled.

Repair the control whether relief is granted or denied. Reassess stock levels and access, reset compromised credentials, strengthen turnover, reconcile more frequently, train collectors, and verify that lost serials cannot be accepted in the tax or collection system. A completed case file should show the incident, reporting, investigation, decision, accounting treatment, and verified corrective action.