Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas Jr. said today, December 9, that his office is conducting a preliminary investigation into a complaint lodged against former Negros Occidental provincial treasurer Nilda Generoso in connection with the alleged illegal removal of government documents from the Treasurer’s Office at the Capitol in Bacolod City in the evening of November 26.
Generoso has denied that she had anything to do with the removal of the government documents by a job order worker who was caught by Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz carrying out three garbage bags containing the documents.
Diaz has issued a show cause order against Generoso, who retired on December 1, to explain the removal of the documents.
Generoso in her answer to the show cause order in gist said what happened was illegal and she had nothing to do with it, Diaz said.
Nellas said the PLO is assessing the evidence submitted by the provincial security office.
Some of the documents intercepted were old deposit and collection reports from the treasurer’s office, he said.
The JO worker is being asked to submit a sworn statement, Nellas said.
There is a presumption that the order came from the provincial treasurer herself, he added.
The preliminary investigation that is expected to be finished by December 20 is limited to administrative liability, he said.
There are rules that have to be followed in the disposal of public documents, and the propriety of their disposal at 7 in the evening needs to be investigated, Nellas said.
Acting Provincial Treasurer Amy Grace Bolivar has been asked to evaluate if there are important documents missing from the treasurer’s office, because if everything is intact then there will not be any problem, Diaz said earlier.*