Less than a year after Congress showed pity and restored its budget, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is at risk of angering lawmakers again — if it cannot justify its expenses.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the rights agency’s spending on rentals for training venues, which, it said, was patently extravagant.
In its 2017 audit report, the COA said the CHR could have saved as much as P5.4 million by using existing facilities within its premises, instead of holding “live-in” training sessions in hotels.
“The CHR could have expended minimal amount of training expenses had the agency conducted the training within the office premises or utilized available government facilities and on a nonresidential (live-out) basis,” the COA said.
Frustrated over the CHR’s performance and its criticisms of the Duterte administration’s policies, the House of Representatives voted last year to give the CHR a P1,000 budget for 2018 only to restore its P600-million-plus allocation as the chamber reconciled its version of the budget with that of the Senate.
Unliquidated advances
The COA also said officials and employees of the CHR central office had yet to liquidate a total of P4.3 million in cash advances.
In addition, some P2.4 million was disbursed for various financial transactions in the CHR regional offices in the Ilocos, Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Soccsksargen and Caraga regions without proper documentation.
In questioning the CHR’s use of hotels as training venues, the COA cited audit laws that mandated public officials to manage state resources and safeguard these against loss or wastage to ensure efficient, economic and effective operations of government.
CHR explanation
The government audit manual, the COA said, also states that in the conduct of training, agencies must exert efforts to make use of available resources and government facilities, and that in-house training programs shall, as much as possible, be conducted on a “nonresidential basis.”
Responding to the COA findings, the director of the CHR’s general administration office said the agency used hotels as training venues because the CHR’s multipurpose hall was occupied by the now defunct Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board.
COA records showed that the CHR spent a total of P5.4 million for 20 “training and development programs” held in different hotels in 2017. Of these training sessions, 13 were held in Metro Manila hotels.
Records showed that the CHR held the training sessions on in-house basis. Participants were booked in hotels with package accommodation, including rooms for participants, meals for breakfast, morning and afternoon snacks, lunch and dinner.
State auditors, however, noted that although some of the training venues were located in the National Capital Region, participants from the CHR central office were likewise booked in the hotels, even though most of them were residents of Metro Manila.
The COA noted that in these trainings, there were more participants from the CHR central office than those coming from the regional offices.
“Henceforth, the agency should conduct trainings … in available rooms within the office premises or avail [itself] of government facilities, which should be on a nonresidential basis for Metro Manila-based employees, to save on training expenses,” the state auditors said.