Intel funds’ audit urged

Rep. Edcel Lagman —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The “rules” on confidential and intelligence expenses do not justify the “enormity and widespread” P10.141 billion for “secret funds” in the proposed 2024 national budget.

Opposition lawmaker Rep. Edcel Lagman on Friday pressed Congress to exercise its power of the purse and ensure that such funds will be transparently audited.

In a statement, Edcel Lagman suggested that the bulk of the confidential and intel funds “must be included, if ever, in the agencies’ maintenance and other operating expenses.”

This is “to assure the regular and transparent auditing process, rather than the present furtive auditing procedures behind closed doors between the audited and the auditor,” he said.

P4.5 billion goes to OP

Earlier, Edcel Lagman told the Inquirer that he would continue his advocacy against “the profligate allocations for confidential and intelligence funds in the President’s 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), the excess fat of which must be excised and reallocated to socioeconomic services, particularly education and health.”

A check of the 2024 NEP submitted to Congress showed that a total of P10.141 billion in confidential and intel funds was tucked into the proposed P5.768 trillion national budget.

Of the P10.141 billion, P4.56 billion or almost half of the sum is being requested by the Office of the President.

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