By Billy Begas
The Commission on Audit (COA) issued a Notice of Suspension to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) after identifying numerous deficiencies in the liquidation of its P125 million in confidential funds spent from December 21 to 31, 2022.
During Monday’s impeachment trial, COA auditor Roderick Wamil said a notice of suspension was issued to the OVP after going over its responses to the audit observation report.
“We evaluated the response, the explanation contained in the response, as well as the documents attached to the response, and nag-issue kami ng notice of suspension dahil hindi pa din compliant ang kanilang submission sa ICFAO (COA-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office),” Wamil said.
He explained that a Notice of Suspension is issued when a disbursement appears to be illegal, irregular, or improper pending the submission of sufficient explanations or supporting documents.
Under Joint Memorandum Circular 2015-01, which provides for the guidelines on the entitlement, release, use, reporting and audit of confidential/intelligence funds, a notice of suspension is issued to the head of agency and/or accountant informing them of the temporary disallowance in audit of confidential expenses/intelligence expenses, which appear illegal/improper/irregular unless satisfactorily explained or justified by the responsible officer or until the requirements on matter raised in the course of audit are submitted or complied with.
Among the findings of the COA-ICFAO was the OVP’s use of acknowledgment receipts instead of official receipts or sales invoices in its purchase of goods such as medicines and computers.
“Since it involved po ay purchases, then those purchases should have been supported with sales invoices and official receipts instead of the acknowledgment receipts lang po,” Wamil said.
He added that the OVP also failed to indicate whether purchases of tables and chairs, desktop computers, and printers were intended for confidential operations.
The OVP used 845 acknowledgment receipts to justify the utilization of P125 million in confidential funds in December 2022.
Wamil noted that the total amount of liquidation documents submitted by the OVP amounts to P125.15 million, more than the P125 million fund released to it.
The COA auditor also noted that the OVP repeatedly failed to comply with government rules in liquidating confidential funds during the tenure of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Wamil’s direct examination will continue on Tuesday as the Senate Impeachment Court resumes hearings on Article I of the Articles of Impeachment, which accuses Duterte of culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust over the alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds.—Politiko.com.ph
