COA: Capitol spends P4.7M for phone calls

The provincial government has incurred a total of P4,702,624.11 for landline telephone calls last year, according to the recent report of the Commission on Audit.

In a post-audit of the transactions, state auditors said that out of the amount, only P3,056, 682.11 was Capitol’s actual telephone expenses, in which P1,016,100.58 were charges for long distance calls, most of which pertained to cellular phone calls.

COA found out that the remaining amount of P1,085,840.63 was incurred by the province from call charges of unknown purpose.

The P4.7 million does not yet include the P49, 814.32 that represents the 5-percent value-added tax and P19, 925.73 that represents the 2-percent withholding tax, the COA report added.

The report stated that “the province has no established guidelines regulating the use of landline phones for long distance and cellular phone calls.”

This, according to COA, is in line with the State Audit of the Philippines, Section 2 of Presidential Decree No. 1445, which requires that “all sources of the government shall be managed, expended or utilized in accordance with law and regulations and safeguarded against loss or wastage through illegal or improper disposition, with a view to ensuring efficiency, economy and effectiveness in the operations of the government.”

COA said that the absence of written guidelines regulating the use of landline phones for long distance calls, had allowed all employees’ unlimited access on long distance and cellular phone calls which resulted to unnecessary expenses.

Based on COA Circular No. 85-55-A dated September 8, 1985, the term “unnecessary expenditures” also pertains to the “incurrence of expenditure not dictated by demands of good government, and those of the utility of which cannot be ascertained at specific time.”

It further stated that “an expenditure that is not essential or that which can be dispensed with, without loss or damage to property is considered unnecessary.”

With this, COA recommended that the local chief executive should issue written guidelines to be observed by all officials and employees requiring the use of landline phones for long distance and cellular phone calls for official purposes only.

All calls for personal purposes should be on account of the user to avoid incurrence of unnecessary expenditures, it added.

Provincial accountant Marieto Ypil said that the province has already existing guidelines for personal and official calls.

“Last June, we directed them to discourage landline calls for mobile phones...for the past months, we observed nay minimal,” Ypil said.

Capitol consultant information Rory John Sepulveda also said that the department heads should be responsible for the accounting of the calls.

“If the department heads cannot account for it, they will pay for it,” he said. — Joy Kareen T. Saliente/WAB