Sara Duterte: COA questions on Davao City spending ‘resolved’

Mick Basa

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Sara Duterte: COA questions on Davao City spending ‘resolved’
'All these matters were duly rectified and resolved,' says Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Davao City government has “resolved” the questions raised by the Commission on Audit (COA) on alleged irregular expenses of the local government in 2017, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said.

The city lacked supporting documents for a portion of its 2017 spending totalling to P569.855 million, according to a COA report.

But the irregularities have been addressed, Duterte said on Tuesday, May 22.

“The required documentation, information and/or comments or explanations were submitted on time to the COA and all these matters were duly rectified and resolved,” the mayor said, when asked for comment on the COA report. 

While the COA document had raised red flags in its latest audit on the local government, Duterte-Carpio stressed that “there were no misuse or loss of public funds.”

“As (it) can be observed, no notice of suspension or disallowance was issued in relation to these COA AOMs (audit observation memorandum) because we put high value on transparency,” she said.

In the COA report, Davao City was questioned on its procurement of medicines, school equipment, as well as how it handled infrastructure projects and inventory of supplies.

At least P69 million worth of infrastructure projects in the city, said COA, lacked transparency as required under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Act.

As a result, COA said some of the projects had been suspended, which “could have been avoided when properly addressed during deliberations with management officials and the implementing offices for the projects, to arrive at decisions advantageous to the government.”

Duterte-Carpio said COA’s observations on the local government had been noted and that the body’s reports “help us improve our system in transactions.”

“Missteps, especially on erroneous or missing documents are immediately corrected to avoid doubt on the transactions,” she said. – Rappler.com

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