CCT’S MISSING P3.77B AMONG P102B IN PECUNIARY LOSSES — COA
Contrary to President Aquino’s straight path doctrine, his administration was found to have mostly pursued irregular practices, including his much-vaunted conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that based on the a Commission on Audit (CoA) report showed P3.77 billion disbursements for the program last year which were unaccounted for.
Other mulitbillion-peso anomalies were reported in the Bureau of Customs where the P26 billion in Customs duty and tax drawbacks given were found illegal, and the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) transfer or release to local governments of P2.6 billion from the special account in the general funds (SAGF) were found irregular, the CoA audit performance summary report last year showed.
The report was submitted to President Aquino and the heads of both chambers of Congress last Sept. 27.
CoA showed in the report P102 billion in “pecuniary” loss to the government last year as a result of “violations of law, rules and regulations.”
The CoA said the findings for 2011, covering the first year of President Aquino’s term, mostly involved “unauthorized/irregular/unnecessary expenses, unliquidated cash advances, violations of the Procurement Act, underassessment/undercollection, unutilized/ineffective projects, and lack of appropriation.”
The CoA also cited the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), which regulates road tolls, for P2.8 billion in understatement of its liabilities, the Philippine Air Force which it said underutilizaed its budget for P1.6 billion, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for releasing P1.043 billion for unprogrammed projects or activities, and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) for a accounts receivable balance bloated by P797 million representing disputed debts and delayed or suspended projects worth P1.2 billion.
Likewise mentioned in the report was the National Labor Relations Commission’s (NLRC) national capital region office where judgment awards of decided cases and cash bonds on appealed cases worth P641 million since 2004 remained unremitted to the Bureau of Treasury.
The CoA also said the Philippine Coast Guard recorded the receipt of Marine Environment and Protection Equipment and Supplies from the DoTC worth P319 million were without complete documentation.
Some P169.4 million rentals for the University of the Philippines-Ayala Techno Hub property could not be verified due to lack of supporting documents.
Also cited were mission inflatable boats in the Office of the Civil Defense and failure of the Department of Energy to efficiently distribute compact fluorescent lamps which were acquired through a P172 million contract.
“Most audit findings categorically indicate pecuniary loss on the part of the government, as a result of violations of law, rules and regulations,” said the report, first posted on the CoA Web site yesterday.
More than 4,000 cases of unauthorised expenses, unaccounted for cash advances, uncollected duties, fictitious claims, missing assets, or abandoned projects, cost the government P101.82 billion, it said.
The total is equivalent to 5.6 percent of the country’s budget this year.
Two state banks lent large sums unsecured by hard collateral, while Manila airport left 21 abandoned aircraft parked in an area exposed to natural elements, leading to their deterioration, despite being given funding to house them.
Among the biggest items were 1.862 billion pesos in cash advances to two government treasurers in the impoverished province of Maguindanao and 1.123 billion pesos in payments to “spurious” suppliers to a Muslim self-rule area.
Chief state auditor Grace Tan said in a letter sent to Manila newspapers Saturday that the audit covered items mostly relating to accounts prior to 2010, when Aquino was elected to office on an anti-corruption platform.
“Pecuniary loss does not necessarily result from graft, and it is only the courts that can make judgement of graft,” Tan said.
Aquino has asked a special anti-graft prosecutor to file criminal charges against people deemed responsible for 744 of the cases, the auditors said.
The other cases are under investigation.
Arroyo was arrested and detained at a military hospital in Manila on Thursday after allegedly using diverting 366 million pesos in state lottery funds meant for charity programmes into her election campaign kitty.
After being president for nearly 10 years, Arroyo was initially charged in November last year with vote fraud for allegedly conspiring to rig the 2007 senatorial elections, but later posted bail.
Her spokesmen did not reply to AFP’s requests for comment.
Aquino spokeswoman Abigail Valte told reporters Saturday: “We have not become complacent in our anti-corruption measures.”
With Chito Lozada, AFP
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