Commission on Audit chair Heidi Mendoza assured residents of Aliaga town in Nueva Ecija that the commission had already taken up their complaints over the alleged abuses and irregularities committed by their mayor Marcial Vargas.

In a November 7, 2012 letter obtained by this reporter, Mendoza assured the Aliaga municipal council that their request for “investigation of alleged anomalies, irregularities and abuses” of Vargas has been duly acknowledged by the commission.

Mendoza in her letter said she has already issued a memorandum order to the COA Regional Director in Region 3 in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga that has jurisdiction over the municipality to check the people of Aliaga’s complaint against Vargas.

She added that the COA Regional Office was tasked to investigate and submit “as soon as possible” their findings to the COA Fraud Audit and Investigation Office, Legal Services Sector (FAIO-LSS) and to her office.

“We shall be furnishing you a copy of the report (Regional Audit Office) on the said request once the appropriate action is fully complied with,” Mendoza assured the Aliaga residents.

Vargas has also been charged of grave misconduct and usurpation of legislative function by his own seven councilors before the Office of the Ombudsman last month along with the request to COA to step into such irregularities of the municipality’s disbursement of funds.

Vargas was charged for failing to adopt a salary grade allocation to his seven councilors as ordered by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) through a July 2008 circular.