FOURTEEN officials and employees of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), including Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, were unable to liquidate their cash advances for President Rodrigo Duterte's local and foreign travels amounting to P2.984 million, according to the Commission on Audit (COA).
In its 2016 audit report, the COA said that as of December 31, 2016, a total of P2,984,381.91 cash advances of PCOO officials and employees remained unliquidated more than 77 to 365 days beyond their liquidation date.
"Every travel of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, local and foreign, an officer of PCOO is designated as SDO (special disbursing officer) to draw cash advance to defray media operational expenses," the state auditors said.
"Accordingly, cash advance of the SDOs includes supplies, rental of equipment and vehicles, meals, and other contingencies," they added.
The COA report found that Abella has a total of P1,925,956.45 cash advances that still need to be liquidated 53 days beyond the provided due date, November 9, 2016.
The report said Abella's cash advances include P630,244.18 for Duterte's state visit to Brunei Darussalam from September 4 to 5, 2016; P622,404.67 for Duterte' attendance to Association of Southeast Asian Nations related meetings in Vientiane Laos from September 6 to 8, 2016; and P673,307.60 for Duterte's visit to Indonesia on September 8 to 9, 2016.
State auditors also listed three other PCOO officials with unliquidated cash advances, including Kristian Ablan (P288,700), Ma. Teresa Hernandez (P226,940), and Renato Marfil (P19,086).
The COA also called out 10 other PCOO officers and employees for failure to liquidate cash advances worth P583,698.76 for the President's trips.
It said negligence to liquidate the cash advances was a clear violation of Section 89 of Presidential Decree (PD) 1445, which provides that "a cash advance shall be reported on and liquidated as soon as the purpose of which it was given has been served."
Reacting to COA report, Abella said he had submitted all liquidation documents to PCOO Accounting on time but all liquidation papers are still pending for submission to government auditors.
"The Office of the Presidential Spokesperson submitted all liquidation documents to PCOO Accounting on time, as attested by Undersecretary Noel Puyat, administrative officer. We understand Accounting is still processing all PCOO liquidation for submission to the COA," Abella said in a statement.
"As for the other officials and employees, PCOO is attending to these matters," he added.
For his part, Puyat said all expenses and receipts were recorded and that the PCOO would expedite effort to harmonize the files between PCOO Accounting Office and the COA.
He also assured that expenses disbursements made by the PCOO have been "Regular, actual and necessary in the performance of its functions as the government's chief communications and media relations agency." (VoxPop Philippines)
