Excessive payroll, coffee expenses at tobacco agency

MANILA, Philippines – How much caffeine do employees of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) need to stay well?

Apparently, agency officials thought it would be 200 kilograms of coffee, 90 kilograms of chocolates, and whatever else would come from 14 coffee vendo machines. So they bought that much in 2013 as part of NTA’s “Health and Wellness” program.

State auditors said, however, that these are “unnecessary expenditures,” and will notify NTA that the P350,000 it spent on the purchases was disallowed. A notice of disallowance will be issued and officials who approved the purchase will be required to return the money to government.

The NTA cited Civil Service Commission Memorandum Circular No. 38 (S. 1992), which urged government offices to implement a “physical and mental fitness program” for its personnel. Activities under the program included dance lessons, exercise routines, games and  sports tournaments, and life-saving seminars.

Auditors pointed out, however, that “the procurement of vendo machines and packs of coffee and chocolates for purposes of health and wellness of employees was not among the list of activities provided for in the said memorandum circular.”

The Commission of Audit also questioned the NTA’s 2013 payroll expesenses, which was around P5 million more than what was allotted in the budget. It spent  P175.37 million on “personal services” when its budget was only P170.72 million.

Officials charged the extra amount against the agency’s operating expense budget.

The excess in personal services expenses was due to the payment of Educational Assistance Incentive Benefit, which the budget department had disallowed as of November 22, 2013.

COA said the lack of budget or authority from the budget department to use the NTC savings for that “shall be a ground for suspension of the transaction in audit.” – Rappler.com