COA lifts P254.8M disallowance on PAGCOR's confidential, intelligence expenses
The Commission on Audit (COA) has lifted the P254.8 million notice of disallowance it issued against the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) in the liquidation of cash advances for confidential and intelligence (CI) activities from 1997 to 2012.
In a 10-page decision made public recently and signed by Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba and Commissioners Roland Cafe Pondoc and Mario G. Lipana, COA granted the appeal filed by PAGCOR.
Notice of Disallowance (ND) No. 2013-10-008 involving P254,845,561 was issued by COA against PAGCOR on Oct. 23, 2013.
COA said that the P254.8 million spent for CI activities was not justified in relation with the budget per component stated in the Accomplishment Reports.
In an appeal dated March 4, 2014, PAGCOR said that COA misapprehended the facts concerning its CI operations.
COA found PAGCOR’s appeal meritorious as it considered the approval by the Office of the President of PAGCOR's CI fund disbursements for the period January to March 2012.
COA said: “This Commission notes that the Security Intelligence Operation of PAGCOR was financed by its regular annual budget of close to P1.44 billion. At this juncture, it must be emphasized that the huge appropriation does not include the allocation for intelligence expenses.”
“However, a close scrutiny of the mission, security operations and intelligence projects revealed that these are the same activities mentioned in the accomplishment report on the utilization of its Intelligence and Confidential funds,” it said.
“Otherwise stated, the CI fund of P254 million was separately provided in spite of the budget of almost P1.44 billion appropriated for PAGCOR's security operation which practically covers the whole gamut of activities covered by the CI funds," it added.