COA questions Cavite consultants’ contracts

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has questioned the payment of some P4.9 million by the Cavite provincial government to a number of consultants whose scope and duration of duties and functions were not clearly defined.

In its report, the audit body cited 24 consultants who each received a monthly honorarium ranging from P10,000 to P30,000 in 2018, despite the glaring absence of their “scopes of work, terms of reference, time frames and expected outputs and deliverables” in their service contracts.

“Review of the consultancy service contracts and related documents disclosed that the scope of works and expected outputs/deliverables of each consultant were not indicated therein or in any other related document,” the COA said. “The contracts just specified the educational attainment and the work experiences of the consultants.”

The audit body said the absence of such information would prevent the assessment on whether the services rendered by these consultants were beyond the in-house capability of the provincial government, either due to the lack of expertise of its employees or the time needed to complete the work.

Renewal

The report also said that while each service contract covered a maximum period of one year, a list of consultants submitted by the province’s Human Resource and Management Office revealed that the contracts were renewed annually.

Four consultants have been working for the provincial government since 2010, one since 2013, nine since 2016, eight since 2017 and two since 2018.

A list of consultants showed that 10 were hired as “special assistant” and one as “consultant” to outgoing Gov. Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla.

Remulla clinched the congressional seat for the province’s seventh district in the May 13 elections. He will be succeeded by his brother, Juanito Victor, a former governor.

The COA said it recommended the provincial governor to direct its human resource management officer to furnish the COA auditor with copies of service contracts with clear information on the functions of consultants, in order to justify their hiring and avoid the suspension or disallowance on related disbursements.

Special concerns

In its reply, Cavite’s chief administrative officer said the provincial government had already informed the audit team that it was now revising the standard consultancy contract to conform with the audit recommendations.

The audit report showed that the Cavite provincial government also contracted four people as consultants for “special concerns.” A consultant each, meanwhile, was also hired for other issues, including ophthalmology, legal and labor affairs, finance and real estate taxes, education, agriculture modernization, water resources, traffic management, investor relations and investors affairs.

Of the 24 consultants, the highest paid was Adriano Timoteo, who was hired to give advice on investor relations. He received P30,000 monthly, getting a total of P360,000 last year. Records showed that Timoteo has been rendering services for the provincial government since January 2010.

Next was Ruperto Sangalang, special assistant to the governor, who was paid P330,000 in 2018. Timoteo was hired in January 2017.

Edilberto Silan received P300,000 for his services as consultant for agriculture modernization and was hired by the government in February 2016.