COA seeks P10-M intelligence fund as auditors get threats

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Audit (COA) asked the House committee on appropriations, on Tuesday, for a “modest” P10 million in intelligence fund to help boost its effort to scrutinize the finances of the entire bureaucracy.

COA chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan said the amount would be a “drop in the bucket” compared to the P325-million intelligence fund of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the alleged misuse of which has become the subject of a plunder case against former President Gloria Arroyo.

“This is way below the P300 million plus intelligence fund of (PCSO),” she said in Filipino while presenting details of her agency’s proposed P8.016-billion budget for 2013.

She kept mentioning the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. in reference to the intelligence funds, but was apparently referring to the PCSO funds.

“Between (PCSO) and ourselves, I think the COA needs more intelligence fund,” she said, but clarified that she was not trying to “belittle” the other agency.

Tan said the P10-million intelligence fund was similar to that of the Office of the Ombudsman. She said the COA used to have such a fund but it was removed.

The COA chair noted that she had to reshuffle her auditors just last Friday because some of them were receiving death threats. “There’s a lot of security issues,” she said.

With a budget of P6.635 billion in 2012, the COA reported that it conducted a total audit of 1,496 from January to June. During the same period, it disallowed a total spending of P18.48 billion.

To help convince congressmen to support COA’s 2013 budget, Tan reported “major audit findings” such as the one on the P26.072 billion in “illegal drawback of customs duties and taxes” approved by the Bureau of Customs.

Tan also cited the P3.77 billion “unaccounted,” “over-the-counter” disbursements in the conditional cash transfer program being run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. But she said the amount was already reduced to “only less than P1 billion” this year.

The COA also found that the national government incurred P56.739 million in “commitment fees” because of the “delayed implementation of projects.” Tan attributed the problem partly to “insufficient planning” and issues in the implementation of the procurement system.

Tan said that as of Tuesday, COA was still in the process of auditing the Priority Development Assistance Fund and the Malampaya gas fund.