1. Mrs.

Annie Dimaculangan is a Cashier of the Municipal Treasury of the

Municipality of Timbukto. As such, she is in-charged in the collection of
taxes and other monies of the town. Mrs. Dimaculangan, got sickly and had
to go the hospital for her check up from time to time. Due to hardship of
living, she spent the amount of P20,000.00 from her collection for her
medical check-ups. The Commission on Audit made a random audit at the
Municipality of Timbukto and they found out that the amount of
P20,000.00 was missing. The Municipal Mayor issued a memorandum order
to the legal officer to conduct an investigation on the matter. If you are the
legal Officer, after conducting the investigation, what would you
recommend to the Mayor? What is/are the liability/ies of Mrs.
Dimaculangan, if there’s any? Explain and justify your findings and
recommendations.

As a legal officer, I would probably suggest to the mayor to

investigate the case or the situation in a discreet manner. With this in mind,
it is important to protect someone’s dignity when it comes to his/her
profession and for her to avoid judgement with her co-workers and others.
In Mrs Annie Dimaculangan’s situation, I strongly believe that she has no
intent to gain benefit from it. It’s just that, she only needed urgent money
for her check-up. Since she has a valid reason with what she did, I strongly
recommend to the mayor to just give slight disciplinary action to Mrs Annie
Dimaculangan instead of conducting an indictable offense to her. A days or
weeks of suspension can do. Make an agreement like on how will she pay
back the money she got from the Municipal Treasury. Mrs Annie
Dimaculangan is obviously not financially stable to undergo check-up and it
is really hard on her part. How much more if she will be having Substantial
penalties or can be an imprisonment ? Humanity should still prevails.

Mrs. Annie Dimaculangan still have liability that remains and that is
for fraudulently obtaining money from the Municipal Treasury without any
knowledge or consent from the authorized person or her superior. Being
charge with fraud or financial crime is a serious situation to cope with. To
avoid consequences, the employee or any public officer must know their
function or duties, be accountable, be responsible and must know their
limitations.
 If Mrs Annie Dimaculangan did it again, I will not hesitate to suggest
to the mayor or any person who have the authority to remove her instead
of doing forms of theft or larceny again and again especially if the money
uses for an illicit manner.