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COA hits PCOO for unliquidated cash advances for Duterte trips

Pia Ranada

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

COA hits PCOO for unliquidated cash advances for Duterte trips

Rene B. Lumawag

The PCOO explains that the delay in liquidation is due to the frequent and consecutive trips of President Rodrigo Duterte in his first 6 months in office

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) called the attention of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) for P2.98 million in cash advances that remained unliquidated as of December 2016. 

In a COA report, the commission specified that most of these cash advances were intended for PCOO operations during President Rodrigo Duterte’s foreign and local trips.

A total of 14 officials and personnel were listed in the report as having been unable to liquidate cash advances within the proper time frame.

The list includes Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella and PCOO Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan. Only one of the officials tagged, former undersecretary for media relations Rey Marfil, belonged to the previous administration.

Abella was unable to liquidate P1.92 million worth of cash advance intended for Duterte’s trips to Brunei, Laos, and Indonesia. Due on November 9, 2016, his liquidation of these funds was delayed by at least 53 days.

Ablan still had P228,700 in unliquidated cash advances for a “National Communications Workshop” held on September 15, 2016. His liquidation was delayed by at least 87 days.

Marfil, the only official from the Aquino administration with unliquidated expenses as of December 2016, still had P19,030 unliquidated cash advances for “unrefunded balance of media operational expenses.” His liquidation of the amount has been delayed by at least one year.

PCOO Assistant Secretary Ramon Cualoping III had unliquidated cash advance of P90,747.66. These funds were intended for use during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits in Laos attended by Duterte, and presidential trips to Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Other personnel in COA’s list include personnel of the Media Accreditation and Relations Office (MARO) who are in charge of shepherding private and state-run media during presidential events.

They are typically given funds to help pay for food and transportation for members of the media covering the events.

Violations 

COA pointed out that officials and personnel were unable to liquidate cash advances on time. 

“The above Table showed delays in the liquidation of the travel advances for as long as 77 days in disregard of the rules and regulations on the granting of cash advance,” reads the report.

COA rules stipulate that, for foreign travels, cash advance must be liquidated within 60 days after returning to the Philippines. For local travels, liquidation must be completed within 30 days after the return of the personnel to their “permanent official station.”

The Commission also noted that additional cash advances worth a total of P22.2 million were granted to 36 personnel even if they were unable to settle their previous cash advances. This is a violation of both Presidential Decree No. 1445 and COA Circular 97-002. 

PCOO’s explanation

The PCOO accounting office explained that PCOO management had to grant additional cash advance requests despite the non-settlement of previous ones due to the “urgency” of the official travel or project.

PCOO management asked COA to consider the special functions of its personnel “whose schedules need to follow the consecutive travels of the President.”

It pointed out that that year, Duterte’s foreign trips “happened one after another, thus the delay in the liquidation of some cash advances.” 

COA, however, countered this argument by saying emergency situations can be handled efficiently by simply following existing accounting and auditing guidelines. 

“The detrimental effect of emergencies, however, could be managed through adherence to Section 51, Volume III of the Government Accounting and Auditing Manual (GAAM) which requires that Management adhere to approved policies and procedures through continuous supervision of personnel by reviewing their work systematically and making them aware of their duties responsibilities, and accountabilities,” the COA report said.

The auditing agency said the delay in cash advances “signified Management’s inadequacy in dealing with emergencies.”

“Contributory to the accumulation of unliquidated CAs was the Accounting Division’s lag in verifying, reviewing and recording the submitted liquidation papers,” said COA. – Rappler.com

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Pia Ranada

Pia Ranada is Rappler’s Community Lead, in charge of linking our journalism with communities for impact.