Resident auditors also under probe, says COA chief

COA chair Maria Gracia Pulido Tan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Resident auditors in implementing agencies that figured in the P10-billion pork barrel scam are also under investigation by both the Office of the Ombudsman and the National Bureau of Investigation, Commission on Audit (COA) chair Grace Pulido-Tan told the Senate on Monday night.

Tan made the remarks before the Senate plenary upon questioning by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.

The Senate allowed Tan to directly answer Estrada’s questions as the chamber tackled COA’s proposed outlay under the P2.26-trillion national budget for 2014.

It was the second time Estrada grilled Tan after the COA’s special audit of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) showed that Estrada was among the lawmakers whose PDAF allocations went to dubious nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

Estrada again told Tan of his position that it wasn’t the lawmakers’ task to ascertain the legitimacy of the NGOs to which the government’s implementing agencies had given their pork barrel funds.

“Out of curiosity, sir, if you will allow me to ask, ‘When you got to know [of the scam] because of our audit report, did you ask them [the implementing agencies] why they didn’t tell you earlier that these were bogus?’” Tan said to counter Estrada’s line of argument.

“I mean, we can only do so much. We can only call their attention that what they were doing wasn’t in accordance with the law and they have to be held accountable,” Tan added.

Estrada said the lawmakers didn’t have the chance to take the matter up with the heads of the agencies.

“A senator must be crazy to allocate funds to bogus NGOs. I myself would not have allowed it,” he said. “Should we be the ones to blame?”

Tan said it was no longer the mandate of the COA to pin the blame on anybody.

“It is no longer our mandate to determine who should be charged… That’s why I can’t answer the question,” Tan said.

It was at this point that Estrada asked about what the resident COA auditors had done to prevent the implementing agencies from releasing funds to dubious NGOs.

“What was the role of resident auditors in the implementing agencies?  When they learned that they were bogus, why didn’t they call the legislators’ attention?” Estrada said.

“As a matter of fact, that’s also one of the things we are trying to find out…. So we are asking our auditors during those times to explain and I think they are also being investigated by the Ombudsman now,” Tan said.

Estrada asked why the COA was making inquiries only now when he, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. were already facing plunder charges. “I think that’s unfair,” Estrada said.

“We did our internal job of finding out from our auditors and that was in mid-August, sir,” Tan said.

“I think some of the auditors have put in their comments. Some auditors we’re still waiting for their comments. The NBI and the Ombudsman are also investigating them and I think two of our auditors have been….,” she added.

“Included in the charge sheet?” Estrada asked.

“Yes,” Tan said.

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