Long list of anomalies during year 1 of Aquino

 Written by Tribune

 Sunday, 07 October 2012 00:00

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

P101B Lost To Graft? Not Under Our Watch, Malacañang Says

Manila Bulletin – Sat, Oct 6, 2012

Malacañang denied yesterday that the Commission on Audit (COA) Audit Performance
Summary Report on the P101-billion allegedly lost to graft and corruption had pertained
to the Aquino administration.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the COA report did not state that
the P101 billion lost to graft and corruption had been under Aquino's watch but was
prior to the present administration.

She also said the current administration continues to pursue measures against graft and
corruption.

"We've never become complacent when it comes to pursuing anti-graft and anti-
corruption measures," Valte said.

"It seems that nagkaroon ng conclusion sa isang parte ng report na automatically nag-
conclude na just because there were some audit findings, ang conclusion is it was lost
to graft [It seems that there was a conclusion that was based from one part of the
report that automatically concluded that it was lost to graft just because there were
some audit findings]," Valte said.

She said COA Commissioner Grace Tan has already sent a letter to respective editors
who published the story, noting that Tan herself had said that it was not a justified
conclusion.

Valte cited Table 2.7-A of the COA report that stated that the amount lost to graft was
"as of Dec 31, 2011."

"It's an accumulation from prior years," Valte said.

"At least nilinaw ng COA kung ano talaga ito - whether buong 2011 lang ba yun, and
obviously, sabi ni Chairman Tan, hindi; and second, did COA say lahat yan nawala sa
kadahilanan ng graft? Ang sabi rin ng COA ay hindi po [At least COA made a
clarification - if the figure was in 2011, obviously, Chairman Tan said no; and second, if
the whole amount was lost due to graft, COA also denied that]," she added.

Tan, in a letter, said the report was based on the COA report Table II.7-A or the
Common Audit Findings.

"A careful reading of our Report would have readily disclosed that the subject matter
thereof were audits completed in 2011, but not necessarily covering the same year. In
fact, many of the audits covered prior years. For example, the audits of the ARMM, the
province of Maguindanao, selected Municipalities of Maguindanao, and DPWH-ARMM,
which revealed billions of pesos in pecuniary loss, covered the years 2007 to 2009 - and
we so stated in the Report," Tan stated.

Tan stated that the report had also covered anomalies in the Bureau of Customs (BOC),
Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), National Labor Relations
Commission (NLRC), the Fertilizer Fund scam, the Palawan Malampaya fund share,
purchase of helicopters and pump boats, Quedancor Swine Program, among others,
that occurred in the previous years before the Aquino administration.

"Indeed, the pecuniary loss that we have found from our audits amount to great sums,
and should be appropriately addressed. Towards this end, proper attribution to those
accountable should be made and generalizations avoided. Pecuniary loss does not
necessarily result from graft, and it is only the courts that can make a judgment of
graft. Our duty is to refer to the Ombudsman our audit findings, and this we have also
stated in our Report," Tan stated.

"It is certainly not fair, especially to most of the agencies that have been found to have
improved on their financial discipline and accountability to the people. This is shown in
Tables II.4-A to C of our Report, where we noted an increase in unqualified and
qualified opinions across agencies in 2011 as compared to 2010 and 2009," she
stressed.

Corruption pervasive under Noy gov’t

 Written by Charlie V. Manalo

 Thursday, 11 October 2012 00:00

Former National Treasurer Leonor Briones yesterday disputed claims that the audit
report made by the Commission on Audit (CoA) reporting losses in the national treasury
of P101 billion in 2011 that, as alleged, covered the time of former President Gloria
Arroyo because the report is clear that a portion of that fund was unaccounted for
during the time of President Aquino.
Speaking during a forum, Briones said it is totally unfair to blame the Arroyo
administration on the losses incurred as reflecting in the 2011 audit report because it is
also clear in the report that a significant portion could be attributed to the Aquino
administration.
“It is not right to point to the Arroyo administration all the P101 billion losses because
we are now speaking of an audit report of 2011. In fact, some irregularities in the
report are directly attributable to the time of President Aquino,” Briones said.
In the audit of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program alone, Briones said, as of
Dec. 31, 2011, a total of P14.486 billion had already been disbursed but only P10.716
billion were accounted for. “Here it is clear that some of the unaccounted funds were
from the Aquino administration because during the time of GMA, the budget was only
P5 billion,” she said.
The Audit Performance Summary Report of CoA for Calendar Year 2011 stated that it
found that the government lost P101.816 billion to graft in 2011. “For CY 2011,
unauthorized/irregular/unnecessary expenses, unliquidated cash advances, violations of
the Procurement Act, underassessment/under collection, unutilized/ineffective projects,
and lack of appropriation constituted the most number of cases where the public coffers
suffered unwarranted loss,” the Report said.
But Malacañang immediately downplayed the report as it even attributed the losses as
happening during the time of the former president.
Briones, however, said that contrary to the Palace claim that corruption had been
curbed under the current administration, the report shows that it still pervasive, if not
much more worse than the previous administration.
This is because, according to Briones, said irregularities in the disbursements of funds
increased during the Aquino administration as could be seen in Tables II.4-A and II.4-B
of the Report.
She said in accounting parlance, an audit finding that is termed as unqualified means
there is no anomaly while a qualified finding means there is an anomaly.
In Table II.4-A of the Audit Report pertaining to the national level, it found that the
number of unqualified findings had decreased from 52 and 54 unqualified findings in
2009 and 2010, respectively to just 44 in 2011. This means that in 2011 there had been
lesser agencies that have been found to be honest and regular in the disbursements of
their funds.
For the local government units (LGUs), the number of qualified findings had increased
from 985 in 2010 to 1,363 in 2011 which means that more local government units have
been found to have irregularities in their financial report for 2011.
“The Tuwid Na Daan is still not tuwid. The problem (of corruption) is still serious and if
we go by the data, this problem becomes even more serious,” she said.
Briones expressed disappointment that the audit report for 2011 had to be included in
an audit of the previous years when they had already been previously audited and
reported by the agency.
“Normally, if you are going to make an annual audit, you refer to transactions that took
place in that year, in this case, the audit of 2011 should have been focused on that
year alone. But the (CoA) report here is quite different because they included other
transactions done in previous years that had already been audited and reported, such
as the fertilizer fund and the swine project and even that issue concerning the
University of the Philippines. I don’t quite understand it,” she said.
She added that since the audit report included years earlier than 2011, it did not say
when the period of the audit started. “What is the start of the period of audit respecting
of this report? The report does not say, so we could not make a definite conclusion on
this. We would not know how much of that pecuniary losses were Aquino’s or which
part were lost during GMA,” she said.
When asked if the apparent jumble of data could be due to efforts to hide some facts,
Briones said she is hopeful that the CoA would not engage in such activity since it does
not augur well with its powers and duties under the Constitution.
She then challenged the CoA to have a detailed report on the expenses of 2011 if
indeed the agency is for transparency. “I have many questions on this report because
the transactions have not been properly identified as to the year. We need to
disaggregate so that those responsible will be made to answer,” she said.
Members of the House Minority bloc yesterday asked Malacañang to stop blaming the
previous administration on the CoA report placing the irreguilarities as having been
committed under the Arroyo regime, and advised the Palace to own up to responsibility
instead.
At their weekly press briefing, House Minority Leader, Queson Rep. Danilo Suarez
defended Mrs. Arroyo on the latest attacks by Malacañang saying the former leader has
nothing to do with irregularities bared by the state auditing agency.
“After close to three years in office, it is quite disheartening that the President has not
outgrown his penchant for throwing the blame on his predecessor whenever
Malacañang is confronted with the reality of this administration’s inefficiency and
shortcomings,” said Suarez.
Suarez said the latest blame-game played by Malacañang in an effort to deflect public
scrutiny and cover up its leadership accountability, concerns CoA reports which
occurred well within the term of President Aquino.
The report, according to Suarez, gave a detailed breakdown of what it termed
“pecuniary losses to the government for calendar year 2011.”
“Contrary to President Aquino’s proclamations of Tuwid na Daan, the CoA report
showed glaring evidence that the first full year of PNoy’s term in 2011 incurred losses
amounting to some P102 billion as a result of irregular practices and violations of law,
rules and regulations, which mostly involved “unauthorized, irregular, unnecessary
expenses, un-liquidated cash advances, violations of the Procurement Act,
underassessment, under-collection, unutilized, ineffective projects, and lack of
appropriation,” said Suarez.
Aside from the CCT issue, Suarez said some of the other multibillion-peso anomalies
reported were: (a) The P26 billion in Customs duty and tax drawbacks given by the
Bureau of Customs which were found illegal; (b) The DBM transfer or release to local
governments of P2.6 billion from the special account in the general funds (SAGF); (c)
P2.8 billion in understatement of Toll Regulatory Board of its liabilities; (d) Philippine Air
Force’s P1.6 billion under-utilizaiton of its budget; (e) P1.043 billion released by the
DILG for unprogrammed projects/ activities; (f) The accounts receivable balance of the
DoTC which was bloated by P797 million representing disputed debts and delayed or
suspended projects worth P1.2 billion; (g) Some P169.4 million rentals for the
University of the Philippines-Ayala Techno Hub property which could not be verified due
to lack of supporting documents; and (h) The Philippine Coast Guard recorded the
receipt of Marine Environment and Protection Equipment and Supplies from the DoTC
worth P319 million which were without complete documentation.
“These are just a handful of those items included in the report but we what we have
mentioned should suffice to point out the glaring outstretched hand of graft and
corruption under this Administration,” said Suarez.
And yet, Suarez pointed out that “Malacañang together with Chief state auditor Grace
Tan, with the same speed and audacity that they have patently shown in past, so
nonchalantly points their accusing finger to the previous administration, saying that the
anomalies mentioned were committed before PNoy took over.”
“Indeed the Malacañang’s efforts to deflect the issue are quite pathetic,” said Suarez.

CoA asked to bare details of summary audit for 2011

 Written by Ed Velasco

 Sunday, 14 October 2012 00:00

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The Commission on Audit (CoA) should bare the fine details of its audit report
submitted to President Aquino and heads of the two chambers of Congress to show
which findings covered the administrations of Aquino and his predecessor former
President Arroyo to back CoA Chairman Grace Pulido-Tan that indeed most of the
irregularities did not happen under the current dispensation, former National Treasurer
Leonor Briones said.
Briones also noted that while some of the items in the report referred to the previous
administration, the CoA findings also covered audits done under the Aquino
administration.
Briones on radio said the Audit Performance Summary Report submitted to Aquino and
Congress last Sept. 27 was also vague on what years it covered.
“The period it covers is unclear. What is clear is that there are findings covering both
the administrations of former President Arroyo and also that of Aquino,” she said.
The government, primarily the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD),
claimed to have expeditiously liquidated P3.7
billion in funds intended for President Aquino’s flagship social welfare scheme, the
conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, after the Commission on Audit (CoA) in a
report to President Aquino cited the CCT funds discrepancy among the items where the
government incurred “pecuniary loss” in 2011.
A DSWD official said even CoA “must appreciate” the stepped up liquidation of the fund.
The DSWD said only more than P200 million remain unaccounted and more than P3.5
billion has been fully liquidated. No other government agency has done such
expeditious liquidation, according to Undersecretary Mateo Montano, the officer-in-
charge of the CCT program.
The undersecretary has given his agency until last September 30, 2012 to fully liquidate
the amount. “Sept. 30 is my self-imposed deadline. As of date, out of P3.7 billion, only
P256 million remains unliquidated.
Liquidation is still ongoing. It is almost P3.5 billion liquidation, a feat CoA would even be
generous to commend such achievement. In pursuit of fairness, I hope this
achievement would be published,” Montano told the Daily Tribune in a text message.
Pulido-Tan said the amount was withdrawn over the counter unaccounted, thus there is
irregularity in the disbursement of the fund. However, Montano said there were no
irregularities in the disbursements of the fund.
Montano said it is LandBank that has difficulty in coping with the huge amount being
liquidated because its database is not capable of holding such big amount.
As early as Dec. 31, 2011, more than P2 billion of the amount has been liquidated but
LandBank was not able to present documents that will attest that the social welfare
department has so far fully accounted the amount.
The undersecretary, however, said he was not blaming Landbank for the mess.
The DSWD said it continues to coordinate with Landbank to submit supporting
documents such as acknowledgement receipts duly signed by beneficiaries in the
payroll list, bank debit advices, and a certified list of paid beneficiaries, to speed up the
liquidation of the remaining balance.
Secretary of Social Welfare and Development Dinky Soliman said that the DSWD and
the Landbank have already entered into a memorandum of agreement which clearly
details the roles and responsibilities of each agency on the payment and liquidation of
cash grants.
“We hope that through this agreement we can expedite the liquidation process and
prevent the accumulation of unliquidated cash grants in the future,” Soliman said.
“We assure the public that the cash grants released in 2011 were distributed and duly
received by the rightful beneficiaries,” Secretary Soliman concluded.
Pulido-Tan earlier issued a disclaimer on news stories regarding the CoA report
submitted to Aquino and the heads of the two chambers of Congress.
“A careful reading of our report would have readily disclosed that the subject matter
thereof were audits completed in 2011, but not necessarily covering the same year. In
fact, many of the audits covered prior years. For example, the audits of the ARMM, the
Province of Maguindanao, Selected Municipalities of Maguindanao, and DPWH-ARMM,
which revealed billions of pesos in pecuniary loss, covered the years 2007 to 2009 - and
we so stated in the report,” Pulido-Tan said.
“Similarly, we stated in our report that our findings on the Bureau of Customs (involving
about PHP 35B in the aggregate relating to drawbacks, tax credit certificates,
warehousing charges and outstanding accounts of surety companies) have been
recurring in previous years. The same goes true for our finding of uncollected
receivables of the DOTC and the NLRC cash bonds, which were accumulated from prior
years. The cases referred to the Ombudsman involving about P4.674B also relate to
transactions prior to 2010, such as the fertilizer fund scam, the Palawan Malampaya
fund share, purchase of helicopters and pump boats, and the Quedancor swine
program,” she added.
Pulido-Tan said while the pecuniary loss found from the CoA audits amounted to great
sums and should be appropriately addressed, “proper attribution to those accountable
should be made and generalizations avoided.”
Pecuniary loss does not necessarily result from graft, and it is only the courts that can
make a judgment of graft. Our duty is to refer to the Ombudsman our audit findings,
and this we have also stated in our report, she said.
Nonetheless, on the portion pertaining to Pecuniary Loss in the CoA report for 2011, it
was stated “For CY (calendar year) 2011, unauthorized/irregular/unnecessary expenses,
unliquidated cash advances, violations of the Procurement Act,
underassessment/undercollection, unutilized/ineffective projects, and lack of
appropriation constituted the most number of cases where the public coffers sufered
unwarranted loss.”

CoA asked to bare details of summary audit for 2011

 Written by Ed Velasco

 Sunday, 14 October 2012 00:00

The Commission on Audit (CoA) should bare the fine details of its audit report
submitted to President Aquino and heads of the two chambers of Congress to show
which findings covered the administrations of Aquino and his predecessor former
President Arroyo to back CoA Chairman Grace Pulido-Tan that indeed most of the
irregularities did not happen under the current dispensation, former National Treasurer
Leonor Briones said.
Briones also noted that while some of the items in the report referred to the previous
administration, the CoA findings also covered audits done under the Aquino
administration.
Briones on radio said the Audit Performance Summary Report submitted to Aquino and
Congress last Sept. 27 was also vague on what years it covered.
“The period it covers is unclear. What is clear is that there are findings covering both
the administrations of former President Arroyo and also that of Aquino,” she said.
The government, primarily the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD),
claimed to have expeditiously liquidated P3.7
billion in funds intended for President Aquino’s flagship social welfare scheme, the
conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, after the Commission on Audit (CoA) in a
report to President Aquino cited the CCT funds discrepancy among the items where the
government incurred “pecuniary loss” in 2011.
A DSWD official said even CoA “must appreciate” the stepped up liquidation of the fund.
The DSWD said only more than P200 million remain unaccounted and more than P3.5
billion has been fully liquidated. No other government agency has done such
expeditious liquidation, according to Undersecretary Mateo Montano, the officer-in-
charge of the CCT program.
The undersecretary has given his agency until last September 30, 2012 to fully liquidate
the amount. “Sept. 30 is my self-imposed deadline. As of date, out of P3.7 billion, only
P256 million remains unliquidated.
Liquidation is still ongoing. It is almost P3.5 billion liquidation, a feat CoA would even be
generous to commend such achievement. In pursuit of fairness, I hope this
achievement would be published,” Montano told the Daily Tribune in a text message.
Pulido-Tan said the amount was withdrawn over the counter unaccounted, thus there is
irregularity in the disbursement of the fund. However, Montano said there were no
irregularities in the disbursements of the fund.
Montano said it is LandBank that has difficulty in coping with the huge amount being
liquidated because its database is not capable of holding such big amount.
As early as Dec. 31, 2011, more than P2 billion of the amount has been liquidated but
LandBank was not able to present documents that will attest that the social welfare
department has so far fully accounted the amount.
The undersecretary, however, said he was not blaming Landbank for the mess.
The DSWD said it continues to coordinate with Landbank to submit supporting
documents such as acknowledgement receipts duly signed by beneficiaries in the
payroll list, bank debit advices, and a certified list of paid beneficiaries, to speed up the
liquidation of the remaining balance.
Secretary of Social Welfare and Development Dinky Soliman said that the DSWD and
the Landbank have already entered into a memorandum of agreement which clearly
details the roles and responsibilities of each agency on the payment and liquidation of
cash grants.
“We hope that through this agreement we can expedite the liquidation process and
prevent the accumulation of unliquidated cash grants in the future,” Soliman said.
“We assure the public that the cash grants released in 2011 were distributed and duly
received by the rightful beneficiaries,” Secretary Soliman concluded.
Pulido-Tan earlier issued a disclaimer on news stories regarding the CoA report
submitted to Aquino and the heads of the two chambers of Congress.
“A careful reading of our report would have readily disclosed that the subject matter
thereof were audits completed in 2011, but not necessarily covering the same year. In
fact, many of the audits covered prior years. For example, the audits of the ARMM, the
Province of Maguindanao, Selected Municipalities of Maguindanao, and DPWH-ARMM,
which revealed billions of pesos in pecuniary loss, covered the years 2007 to 2009 - and
we so stated in the report,” Pulido-Tan said.
“Similarly, we stated in our report that our findings on the Bureau of Customs (involving
about PHP 35B in the aggregate relating to drawbacks, tax credit certificates,
warehousing charges and outstanding accounts of surety companies) have been
recurring in previous years. The same goes true for our finding of uncollected
receivables of the DOTC and the NLRC cash bonds, which were accumulated from prior
years. The cases referred to the Ombudsman involving about P4.674B also relate to
transactions prior to 2010, such as the fertilizer fund scam, the Palawan Malampaya
fund share, purchase of helicopters and pump boats, and the Quedancor swine
program,” she added.
Pulido-Tan said while the pecuniary loss found from the CoA audits amounted to great
sums and should be appropriately addressed, “proper attribution to those accountable
should be made and generalizations avoided.”
Pecuniary loss does not necessarily result from graft, and it is only the courts that can
make a judgment of graft. Our duty is to refer to the Ombudsman our audit findings,
and this we have also stated in our report, she said.
Nonetheless, on the portion pertaining to Pecuniary Loss in the CoA report for 2011, it
was stated “For CY (calendar year) 2011, unauthorized/irregular/unnecessary expenses,
unliquidated cash advances, violations of the Procurement Act,
underassessment/undercollection, unutilized/ineffective projects, and lack of
appropriation constituted the most number of cases where the public coffers sufered
unwarranted loss.”