COA flags PIA for P206.3 million discrepancy

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) over a P206.304-million discrepancy on the value of its property plant and equipment (PPE) from what was declared in its books as compared to the physical inventory.

In its 2021 annual audit report, the COA noted that based on PIA’s books of accounts of General Ledger as of Dec. 31, 2021, its PPE has a total value of P420.128 million.

However, the COA noted on the report on the Physical Count of PPE (RPCPPE) as of last Dec. 31, there was a balance of only P237.102 million, hence a discrepancy of P206.304 million from its books.

The audit body said this could mean that some PPE were missing or unaccounted for or that they were erroneously evaluated or classified.

The largest discrepancy was in office equipment, which was valued at P119.768 million but the physical count valuation only yielded P15.388 million, a difference of P104.380 million. Meanwhile, the value of “Other Machineries and Equipment” was declared in the books to be at P26.020 million but the physical count report only amounted to P2.852 million, a discrepancy of P23.168 million.

The COA said the discrepancy between the PIA’s books and physical inventory report has been a recurring adverse observation since 2017 but the agency did little to address the issue.

“The unreconciled balance of PPE accounts with the RPCPPE has been an issue since 2017 but Management efforts to verify the cause/s of the discrepancy seem inadequate. Had there been a regular reconciliation of the Accounting and Property Section’s records, the details of the discrepancy could have been easily determined and promptly adjusted,” it added.

The COA, nonetheless, noted that the PIA management had already agreed to the audit recommendation to its accountant and property officer to verify and reconcile the discrepancies and maintain updated property records.

Meanwhile, in the same audit report, the COA also called out the PIA over P12.275 million unliquidated cash advances of its regional offices (ROs).

The COA noted that of the total unliquidated cash advances, 84.06 percent or P10.319 million were granted during the previous years, while P1.956 million were granted in 2021.

The COA said this contravened Section 89 of PD 1445, which states that no additional cash advance shall be granted to any official or employee unless his or her previous cash advance has been settled or accounted for.

The COA said that the PIA has agreed to the following audit recommendations: to continuously issue demand letters to all ROs for the liquidation of advances which purpose had already been served, to refrain from granting new/additional CAs unless the previous ones are liquidated or properly accounted for, and to withhold the salaries of concerned accountable officers who failed to liquidate the past due CAs until such time the same have been fully liquidated.

Created in 1986, the PIA is an agency under the Presidential Communications Operations Office with the primary mandate “to provide the people with accurate, timely and relevant information that will help them to make better decisions.”