COA hits LGA for 39 lavish hotel seminars

MANILA, Philippines - The Local Government Academy (LGA) under the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) spent too much public money on 39 extravagant seminars held in plush hotels last year.

In a report, the Commission on Audit (COA) said the LGA did not take advantage of the lower rates in the training center, but instead preferred to hold its seminars and training outside.

“For 2012, only 16 out of 55 seminars conducted by the LGA were held at the LGA Training Center in Los Baños which is a dismal 29 percent of the total trainings and seminars sponsored by the agency,” read the COA report.

“It may not be amiss to state that had the LGA conducted its seminars and trainings in the LGA Training Center, Los Baños, the government would have saved financial resources which can be used to fund other worthwhile projects of the government.

“Needless to state, the incurrence of unnecessary expenditures in plush hotels and other expensive venues to hold trainings and seminars is extravagant.”

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II chairs the LGA board of trustees.

Future seminars and training must be held at the LGA Training Center in Los Baños for fiscal discipline and to save on scarce government resources, the COA said. 

Financial books disclosed that more than P5.5 million in government funds were spent in the activities, including a local chief executives’ forum  at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Jan. 27, 2012 with P644,807 in expenses for meals and accommodation.

The COA report said a workshop at the Garden Orchid Hotel and Resort Corp. on Sept. 6, 2012 incurred expenses of P592,879 and another at the Almont Hotel’s Island Resort from Aug. 22 to 24, 2012 cost the government P487,271.

State auditors said the training center at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna is the venue for training of local government officials and functionaries.

The center’s facilities can also be availed of upon request of government and non-government agencies, private organizations, local governments and foreign organizations, they added.

In defense, management told the audit team that some of the training were conducted elsewhere because some participants prefer to attend seminars on-site or closer to their place of assignment for economical and practical reasons.