The Commission on Audit (COA) has cited audit deficiencies in the handling by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) of the P419.56 million information production and campaign for the Philippine Identification System Act (PhilSys).
The 2020 PCOO annual audit report that COA recently released also disclosed adverse findings in the agency’s hiring of personnel that was “260.42 percent way above the total number of its regular employees.”
Auditors assailed hiring spree that cost PCOO some P70.68 million in additional salaries, saying that this is due to the absence of a written policy guidelines on availing the services of contract of service (COS) or job order (JO) employees.
Also questioned by COA is the engagement by PCOO of the services of a private lawyer “without the written conformity and acquiescence” of the Solicitor General. The audit agency's concurrence was also absent.
COA decried the disbursement of P105,397.50 in salaries for the hired lawyer as ”irregular and unnecessary.”
“Hold the concerned agency officials who signed/approved the COS, approved the payments and certified as to the necessity and lawfulness of the expenses and completeness of supporting documents liable for the refund of salaries of the private lawyer in view of the noted deficiencies,” COA said in the audit report sent to Secretary Jose Ruperto Martin Andanar, PCOO chief.
The PCOO defended the hiring of the lawyer as urgent and necessary, pointing out that she never represented PCOO as counsel in any legal case. The presidential communications office stressed that there was no “bad faith” in hiring the decision.
In PCOO’s implementation of the PhilSys project, COA noted that some P93.9 million in funds transferred by the Philippine Statistics Authority “had been idle for more than one year” because of non-transfer to the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) and the People’s Television Network (PTNI), two of the implementing agencies tapped for the PhilSys project.
Audit examiners noted that the PCOO has also failed to hire personnel for the Monitoring Division of the PCOO PhilSys Project Team. The audit team also complained that PCOO submitted a Report of Disbursements without documentary support, thus validity of expenditures was doubted.
The PhilSys information and education campaign was assigned by PSA to the PCOO on a contract cost of P419,563,200.00.
Meanwhile, COA questioned PCOO’s hiring of 375 contractual employees last year, noting that the number exceeded by 260.42 percent the current personnel roster of the agency.
“However, the necessity of hiring such number of COS personnel, for which a total amount of P70,688,830.39 was spent by PCOO for their salaries, could not be established due to the absence of the agency’s written policy guidelines on availing the services of COS personnel, justification for the need to hire those COS personnel and incomplete documentation of DVs,” COA said.
In 2020, PCOO was manned by 523 employees, 144 of them with permanent, elective and temporary employment status.
“It was noted that the 375 COS personnel account for 71.70 percent of the total workforce of the PCOO, with the Office of the Secretary having the greatest number of 70 COS personnel in CY 2020,” reported COA.
Auditors also noted that the accomplishment reports submitted by the COS personnel “were not reflective of their actual duties/tasks” as they contain general statements and that the same accomplishments were repetitions of previous reports.
The PCOO management justified the hiring of COS as being triggered by “exigency” of augmenting personnel requirement. It stressed that additional personnel was urgently needed and “considered very crucial” during the pandemic.