‘Follow money trail’: COA, Ombudsman urged to uncover possible corruption in Duterte admin

MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Zarate and chairman Neri Colmenares called on the Commission on Audit (COA) and Ombudsman anew to uncover possible corruption under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“We ask the Ombudsman and COA to follow the money trail of unused funds and savings to unearth corruption in the Duterte administration.  This pattern of supposed inefficiency has become suspicious since Pres. Duterte does not divulge his yearly overall savings since he sat in office.  It is anomalous that Congress is forced to approve the yearly budget without knowing the absorptive capacity of the receiving agencies that it will fund,” Zarate said in a statement on Sunday.

Zarate cited National Budget Circular (NBC) 586 which tries to collect anticipated savings of government agencies under the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“This NBC 586 covers released allotments under the FY 2020 GAA which remain unobligated until May 15, 2021, but not expressly earmarked for the implementation of programs / activities / projects addressing the COVID19 pandemic and can be realigned by the president as he see fit this is a Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP)-like savings and a form of presidential pork,” Zarate noted.

Colmenares echoed Zarate’s call, saying the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should be questioned on the savings.

“Follow the savings! Follow the realignment and augmentation! Even if DBM says there is no actual savings because they have been realigned and spent, the COA and Ombudsman should still ask DBM the savings actually pooled before they were realigned and spent.  They should not allow DBM to get away with it by the mere claim that they managed to spend it in the end,” the chair said.

Colmenares further explained that under Duterte, the definition of savings was “made easier for Malacanang to pool savings and realign it thereby transforming these appropriated funds into pork barrel.”

Under DBM Circular 583, Colmenares said Duterte “included that savings can be declared by the simple expedient that he declares a state of calamity, even if this is not provided under the 2021 GAA or any law especially since the Bayanihan laws have expired.”

“This gives him the unilateral power to arbitrarily declare savings to make it easier for Malacañang to declare savings in violation of the Supreme Court decisions on pork barrel,” Colmenares raised.

With this, he said that Malacañang’s claim that corruption is not yet concluded is confusing.

Colmenares further lamented, “This phenomena of undisbursed funds in the billions is an insult to Congress that cannot be allowed as if it is the executive now that controls the budget… It is Pres. Duterte who should step down for the deadly incompetence of his agencies and the corruption that results.”

Earlier, the COA flagged several government agencies over its handling or unusage of funds.

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