COA: OVP, DepEd submitted documents with wrong dates, unnamed signatories

The Office of the Vice President and Department of Education under Vice President Sara Duterte submitted documents with wrong dates, signatures without names of signatories, and unreadable names of signatories to justify the disbursement of its confidential funds in 2022 and 2023, the Commission on Audit (COA) said on Tuesday.

During the House committee on good government and public accountability inquiry on OVP’s budget use, 1-Rider party-list Representative Rodge Gutierrez asked COA auditor Gloria Camora if the acknowledgement receipts (ARs) submitted by the OVP to justify the disbursement of its 2022 confidential funds were dated December 2023, to which the latter replied in the affirmative.

Camora said many ARs were dated December 2023 but COA does not have the data on the exact number. She said there were also undated ARs.

Gutierrez said based on his study, 158 ARs, amounting to P23 million, have wrong dates. He said this should be a cause for concern for COA.

“If that was a mistake made by 158 people, is that an acceptable margin of error for COA?” the lawmaker asked.

In reply, Camora quoted OVP’s response to COA which said that the ARs “have inadvertently contained clerical or typographical error indicating 2023 instead of 2022.”

The OVP response added “considering the nature of confidential activities which are usually conducted discreetly and completed within a short period of time in addition to the lack of attention to detail of personnel attending to the voluminous papers” and that “some dates and ARs submitted as proof of transaction may have been missed,”

Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, for his part, asked Camora if she was aware that there were 787 ARs with unnamed signatories and 302 ARs with unreadable names of signatories submitted by the OVP and DepEd to justify its confidential fund in 2023.

Camora replied, “Yes, Mr. Chair.”

The COA official also said that the venue of the Youth Leadership Summits (YLS) in 2023 did not match the locations where the DepEd purchased information paid for by its confidential fund.

During the panel's hearing on October 17, it was revealed that the DepEd under Vice President Duterte used certifications from military officials, without the soldiers’ knowledge, to justify the disbursement of P15 million of its confidential funds for payment of informants in 2023. 

DepEd’s justification for spending P15 million of its confidential funds was based on OVP’s documentary submissions to COA that such expense was for the Youth Leadership Summit (YLS).

“Humingi po ako ng reports of evidence of success [for paying informants] as required by COA. Nung nakita ko po ‘yung [certification] report, ang pagkakaintindi ko po is hinold 'yung mga seminars due to coordination and information received from DepEd. So I took the certificate [from them],” former OVP and DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said.

Acop then concluded that given such circumstances, the confidential fund was either pocketed or used for other purposes, tantamount to a crime of technical malversation of public funds.

“If the liquidation is bogus, [and] the funds were not used as it is supposed to be used, that (criminal liability of technical malversation) is the logical conclusion. Would you agree with me, Madam?” Acop asked.

Camora said, “Personal opinion, yes, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would have to agree.”

GMA News Online reached out to the OVP for comment but has yet to receive a response as of posting time. —AOL, GMA Integrated News