PNP flagged over 207 donated vehicles

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Philippine National Police (PNP) for its failure to record in its books 207 vehicles donated by foreign governments, private foundations and corporations as well as local government offices between 2017 and 2020.

“Non-submission of the Deed of Donations and other pertinent documents such as the acceptance report, acknowledgement receipt, property transfer report, invoice and delivery receipt by concerned officers prevented the Accounting Division from recording donations in the books of accounts,” the COA said in its 2021 annual audit report on the PNP.

The audit body said as of Dec. 31, 2021, at least P267.085 million worth of donated motor vehicles, equipment and supplies remained unrecorded in the PNP books.

The COA said this was due to the failure of the PNP’s supply accountable and logistics officers to submit to the Accounting Division the Deeds of Donations and supporting documents.

Verification by the audit team showed that the PNP national headquarters received from the government of South Korea, through the Korea International Cooperation Agency, 49 Hyundai Elantra sedans and 81 Starex vans with a combined value of 3.439 billion South Korean won.

The PNP explained that its Accounting Division failed to record the car fleet donated by Korea due to the “absence of basis for conversion” of the foreign currency before its submission to the Directorate for Logistics.

The COA noted that under the International Public Sector Accounting Standards, a transaction based on foreign currency must be recorded based on the foreign exchange rate on the day the transaction, or in this case, the donation, was completed.

Also found unrecorded in the PNP books were 22 Toyota Grandia vans donated by the Public Safety Savings and Loans Association Inc. (PSSLAI) on Feb. 17, 2020, four Toyota Hilux pickup trucks from Servequest Properties Corp. donated on June 13, 2020 and two Hilux pickups each from the Rotary Club of Makati Central, C5 Mansions Development Corp., GRH Land and Novel Residential Concepts Inc., all donated on June 13, 2020.

The COA’s breakdown also showed that the PNP has yet to record in its books one Toyota Innova donated by the PSSLAI in 2021.

A 13-page list of received in-kind donations, compiled by the audit team as of Dec. 31, 2021, showed that several other vehicles have yet to be recorded in the PNP books.

Among them were a Nissan Navarra pickup donated by the Armed Forces and Police Mutual Benefit Association Inc. to the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group. The AFPMBAI also donated a Nissan Urvan and two Toyota Coasters to the PNP Academy and three Nissan ALS ambulances to the PNP Health Service.

The audit report showed that the vehicles were on top of other in-kind donations, which the PNP has yet to record in its book of accounts. These include P3.65 million worth of equipment such as 12 sets of scuba gear, underwater evidence collection items and training equipment donated by the US government on March 15, 2021.