COA asked to audit United Nations remittances to PH

MANILA, Philippines – The committees on appropriations and national defense asked the Commission on Audit to conduct a special audit of all United Nations remittances to the government for peacekeeping troops sent to other countries.

At the same time, defense committee chairman Rodolfo Biazon also asked the audit agency to look into the alleged double charging of aircraft repair to the UN fund and to another special fund.

COA assistant commissioner Lourdes Castillo acceded to the request, and added that the detailed audit could be conducted now because the UN has provided records of the remittances. In previous years, she said the COA was not able to study these documents because it had been unable to get these from the Armed Forces during its audit investigations.

“I commit to the conduct of audit of accounts now that we have the documents. In fact, we’ve started gathering data from available resources we have and now have concrete basis on what was done with PKO [peacekeeping operation] funds,” she said at the joint hearing of the two committees.