COA auditor unang beses makakita ng ahensyang umaasa lang sa acknowledgment receipts

MANILA, Philippines – Matapos mag-audit ng confidential at intelligence fund expenses ng mahigit 30 ahensya sa loob ng 10 taon, sinabi ni state auditor Roderick Wamil, sa panahon ni Vice President Sara Duterte ang unang pagkakataon na makakita siya ng ahensya na hindi nagpapasa ng official receipts at umaasa lamang sa acknowledgment receipts.

Sa pagpapatuloy ng impeachment trial ni Duterte nitong Miyerkules, Agosto 5, tinanong ni Senator-judge Francis Pangilinan si Wamil tungkol sa kanyang testimonya na ang mga opisina ni Duterte na Office of the Vice President (OVP) at Department of Education (DepEd) ay nagpasa ng mga acknowledgment receipt na hindi suportado ng mga dokumento na nagpapatunay ng pagbayad.

Ang AR ay mga dokumento na ibinigay sa Commission on Audit (COA) upang ipakita na ang mga pondo ay nakaabot sa intended beneficiaries na sa kaso ng OVP at DepEd ay mga confidential informants.

Pirmado ang mga dokumentong ito ng mga benepisyaryo na nagpapatunay na natanggap nila ang mga bayad, katulad ng kontrobersyal na pangalan na si Mary Grace Piattos na tinukoy ng prosekusyon bilang isang fictitious personality.

“In your experience auditing 30 agencies, can you say that your findings on OVP are similar or standard for other offices, or it usually happens that no official receipts and no sales invoices were provided for liquidation?” ani Pangilinan.

“Can you say that it is a standard practice of other agencies that you audited?”

“I cannot say it is a standard practice since this is the first time that they submitted purely ARs only to COA,” sinabi ni Wamil, na nasa Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) na ng COA mula 2014 hanggang 2024.

“So first time in your 10 years that only ARs and no sales invoice, no official receipts were submitted?” tanong ni Pangilinan.

“Yes, and they submitted a huge number of ARs,” sagot Wamil.

Matapos nito, tinanong ni Pangilinan ang COA kung sigurado ito na ang confidential funds ng OVP para sa ikaapat na quarter ng 2022 at unang tatlong quarter ng 2023 ay ginamit pambili ng mga gamot bilang payment of rewards sa confidential informants.

Bilang tugon, sinabi ni Wamil na sinuri nila at ng iba pang COA-ICFAO auditors kung nagpasa ng official receipts o sales invoice ang OVP ng mga biniling gamot.

“Regarding discussions on the absence of sales invoice and official receipts, can you say that the expenses for medicines were really used to buy medicines?” tanong ni Pangilinan.

“If they submitted to us official receipts or sales invoices, we can say so but since they only provided ARs, we cannot make a conclusion based on that document alone,” tugon ni Wamil.

“So because they are saying that since these are medicines, it’s a good thing that we are buying medicines. But can you say that based on the liquidation report that the P122 million worth expenses for medicines were really used for medicines?” pagpapatuloy ni Pangilinan. RNT/JGC