NTC to tap private auditing firm

MANILA, Philippines - The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is set to engage the services of a private auditing firm after the Commission on Audit (COA) begged off as an independent auditor to determine the value of the 3G license of Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprise (CURE) surrendered by dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

Dennis Babaran, head of the legal affairs division of NTC, said the agency would hire one of the country’s top auditing firms to help determine the appropriate cost-recovery amount (CRA) of the third generation frequency surrendered by PLDT.

Babaran said the agency has no other choice but to engage the services of a private company after the COA refused to participate in the exercise.

 â€œThey said this transaction may be subject to a COA audit anyway, so they would rather not have any insider information. The COA can’t be neutral if one of the members comes from them,” he said.

Last month, NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba announced that the agency was set to consult independent auditors to determine the value of the 3G license that continued to delay the auction amid the completion of the Terms of Reference (TOR).

“The only item that still has to be determined is the CRA. We have decided to seek the help of three independent auditors to finalize the said amount,” he stressed.

The PLDT Group surrendered the 3G frequency of CURE being used by its wireless arm Smart Communications Inc. to NTC in the middle of last year.

It would be recalled that Smart acquired CURE from former trade minister Roberto Ongpin in 2008 for a total consideration of P419.54 million. It invested P1 billion in CURE after acquiring it from the Ongpin group.

The divestment of CURE’s 10 megahertz 3G frequency was one of the conditions set by the NTC in approving the sale of the 51.55-percent stake in Digitel of businessman John L. Gokongwei Jr. to the PLDT group for P69.2 billion in 2011.