COA disallows nearly 60% of VP Sara's confidential expenditures in 2022
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit disallowed P73 million worth of confidential funds that Vice President Sara Duterte spent in 2022, according to the state auditors' documents submitted to the House appropriations panel.
According to state auditors' findings of Duterte's expenditures, this means more than half of the P125 million in confidential funds that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) disbursed in 11 days were incorrectly or inappropriately spent.
This was presented by Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) during Tuesday's deliberations of the OVP's spending plan in the House, wherein Duterte repeatedly insisted on not answering questions from lawmakers. The hearing ended with a deferral of the budget and a second round of deliberations scheduled on September 10.
LOOK: The Commission on Audit's notice of disallowance on P73 million of the P125 million confidential funds spent by the Office of the Vice President in 2022, as submitted by state auditors to the House appropriations committee. | via @chicristina_ pic.twitter.com/JaVnFWPTON
— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) August 27, 2024
Makabayan bloc lawmakers, including Castro, moved to subpoena the COA on August 13 to be able to receive audit findings of the OVP and DepEd's confidential and intelligence expenses from 2022-2023 to the powerful House appropriations committee.
“I have here a report about the notice of disallowance. According to the notice of disallowance, the COA has disallowed P73 million out of 125 million confidential funds used by the OVP in 2022," Castro said.
"This is 58.63% of the 125 million. Can you confirm, Vice President?” she added.
Duterte did not respond to the question.
The vice president, who was largely tight-lipped about the expenses, said a notice of disallowance from the COA does not make an expenditure illegal and is part of state auditors' process of evaluating or scrutinizing public funds.
Rep. Isidro Ungab (Davao City, 3rd District) came to Duterte's defense and similarly said a notice of disallowance is "not a judgment" but a request from COA for an agency to explain "particulars" with its expenditures.
P6 out of P10 inappropriately spent
To place the OVP's confidential expenditures into perspective, Rep. Mikaela Suansing (Nueva Ecija, First District) scaled down the OVP's expenses in "peso terms."
Based on Suansing's estimates of the OVP's P125 million confidential fund expenditure in the last quarter of 2022, for every P10 that taxpayers "entrusted" to the OVP, at least P6 out of P10 were deemed by the COA as inappropriate expenditures.
Suansing added that this seems to be the same case for the first two quarters of 2023, with the first and second quarters showing P5 out of P10 was spent inappropriately.
The lawmaker, however, added that she would "not preempt it as the audit is ongoing."
"It's important to ask for accountability given the House's oversight functions. We want taxpayers' funds to be spent correctly," Suansing said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Based on the COA's findings, as told by Castro, Duterte spent the P125 million in confidential funds on the following items:
- Purchase of information - P14 million
- Payment of reward - P10 million
- Rental and other incidental expenses relative to the maintenance of safe houses - P16 million
- Purchase of supplies - P35 million
- Provision of medical and food aid - P40 million
- Payment of incentives for traveling related to confidential operations - P10 million
The Office of the Vice President did not request confidential and intelligence funds for 2025.
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