‘Any audit firm free to look into Senate books’

MANILA, Philippines - Any private auditing firm is free to look into the books of the Senate, including disbursements made by each senator, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.

Enrile was reacting to Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s challenge that he allow a private auditing firm to pore over Senate financial records to determine possible irregularities in the Senate president’s release of P1.6 million to each senator last December.

Cayetano, his sister Pia, and senators Miriam Santiago and Antonio Trillanes IV only received P250,000 each.

Enrile’s office initially called the disbursements “Christmas gifts” but later said they represented maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).

“Anytime. They can even get a foreign audit firm and include the disbursements of each senator. If they want to check my assets, you know my assets are recorded in books of corporation. I do not own any single property in my name. I own shares of stock. They can check the sources of money that acquired those assets,” Enrile said in a television interview.

“That (auditing of his assets) was already done before during the Cory (Aquino) administration,” he added.

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said they see nothing wrong with tapping the services of private firms to audit Senate finances but stressed it’s up to senators to determine how this should be done.

Cayetano earlier said there should be an accounting of the close to P600-million MOOE fund of the Senate, which he said is not covered by the regular rules on liquidation.

Enrile reiterated that the P600 million comprised MOOE of the organic personnel of the entire Senate.

On Wednesday, the Senate President and the Minority Leader engaged in a heated word war on the floor, where even personal issues were brought up.

Cayetano also attacked Enrile’s chief-of-staff Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, whom he accused of effectively running the Senate.

Enrile hit back at Cayetano by bringing up the alleged P37-million unpaid debt of the minority leader’s deceased father, senator Rene Cayetano.

“I will not engage in mudslinging... I was saying I am willing to be audited. I am willing to be audited by any private auditing firm like, they can select SGV, they can select Andersen, they can select the best one that they have,” Enrile said.

Possible complications

Despite Enrile’s declaration of readiness to let private firms audit Senate finances, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said potential legal and financial issues should first be considered.

Lacson told reporters that the Commission on Audit (COA) is the agency tasked by the Constitution to examine the books of every government office.

“I am not against an independent audit but we might be insulting the COA, who I think up to this point is doing its job properly,” Lacson said.

He also cited the potentially high cost of hiring a private auditing firm, which he said would likely charge exorbitantly considering that the institution to be audited has billions of funds at its disposal.

“We should open ourselves to a very transparent audit, in my opinion, by the COA. No holds barred – the Senate as a whole and all the individual offices of the senators. Let’s bare everything and whoever is affected, so be it. I think this will help the Senate recover from the state it is in right now,” he added.

In reply recently to queries from Santiago regarding the legality of Enrile’s disbursement of additional MOOE, COA chair Ma. Gracia Pulido Tan said the MOOE is not a discretionary fund but stressed that Enrile – as Senate president – has the power to augment MOOE using funds from savings. Tan disclosed that Santiago’s office received P15.5 million in additional MOOE in 2012.

Lacson, chairman of the Senate committee on accounts, said he and at least one other senator only had a total of P3.09 million in additional MOOE for the entire year.

“Now we have yet to find out or dig deeper into this; if the additional MOOE that reached P15.492 million for the office of Senator Santiago was realigned from other items or sourced from the savings of the Senate,” Lacson said.

Stricter rules

The COA, meanwhile, said it is now in the process of issuing tighter rules and regulations for the liquidation of government funds, particularly in the use of MOOE.

Tan said the move is pursuant to Section 61 of Presidential Decree No. 1445 which states that all expenses shall be ascertained by COA to have been “duly authorized, adequately funded and documented, properly recorded, actually incurred, and appropriately and consistently classified.”

“We are in the process of coming out with new rules on cash advances and liquidation and this is something that we could address. We are really encouraged by these developments,” Tan said.

Tan stressed that the new rules would be based on the exclusive authority granted by the 1987 Constitution to the COA to define the scope of its audit and examination.

“Per type of expenditure, the MOOE is specified in the GAA to be used for traveling, communication, repairs and maintenance, transportation and delivery, supplies and materials, rents, utility, training and scholarship, extraordinary and miscellaneous, taxes insurance premium and other fees, professional services, printing and binding, advertising, representation, subscription, and membership duties and contribution,” Tan said. 

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Enrile’s willingness to subject the Senate books to outside audit is a welcome development.

“It’s commendable that the Senate President has already said that he supports any auditing on the MOOE. If the Senate President feels that he is not against it, then certainly we hope that the Senate will protect the institution – the reputation of the institution, the integrity of the institution, and vote on the proposal of the Senate President,” Lacierda said.

“They (COA) already have a full report. And I think Chairman Grace Tan has been forthright in disclosing the reports of the COA,” he said.

Senate’s business

Asked to explain the Palace’s seeming silence on possible irregularity in the practice of distributing people’s money without full auditing, Lacierda said, “We are not in a position to comment as to the mechanism because the Commission on Audit has gone through their books.” 

“I can only speak for the executive branch, when we’re asked about our expenses, DBM (Department of Budget and Management) is prepared to discuss our expenses,” Lacierda said.

“We would certainly welcome any means of shedding light on how the mechanism is, but that is as far as we can go. Since the Senate president has already endorsed the idea of opening the expenses to auditing firms, then it’s up to the Senate to decide,” he pointed out.

Lacierda said that “out of comity and respect to a separate branch of government,” executive officials would rather not discuss the issue openly.

“There (might) be accusations of interference and all that. But, as far as we can say, we certainly commend the decision of the Senate President and perhaps the senators themselves can shed light on their position on this matter,” he said.

“It is the Senate that is in question right now so, out of respect for the other branch of government, we would rather not comment on it. We’d expect, however, the senators to speak on those matters,” Lacierda said.

He maintained that the Senate “as a whole knows what to do best to preserve the institution” and that “we don’t need to have another institution to tell them what’s the best thing to do.”

Lacierda said that while Enrile had spoken of tradition in certain financial matters, transparency and accountability should always take precedence.

“The position taken by this government is for transparency and accountability. Now, the focus is on the Senate and I think it behooves the Senate to heed the people’s call for transparency given the situation right now where the imbroglio between the Senate President and Senator Cayetano has been the subject of intense discussions within the Senate floor,” Lacierda said.

He said the verbal tussle between Enrile and Cayetano last Wednesday “was something that was totally unexpected, also for us.”

Lacierda expressed belief that recent developments would not distract the Senate from its task. He said the chamber had in fact ratified the report of the bicameral conference committee on the common carriers tax. “So I’m sure that they’re cognizant of their responsibilities as legislators,” he said. Aurea Calica, Michael Punongbayan