An adverse audit observation made by the Commission on Audit in Philippine Army’s handling of billions of pesos in government funds drew calls from the House of Representatives to make responsible military officials be held accountable.
Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate accused the PA of “wanton disregard” in spending taxpayer’s money without properly accounting for it.
"This scenario is a fertile breeding ground for corruption in the AFP and the enriching of corrupt AFP officials. At the same time, this takes away funds for much needed aid of majority of our people," said Zarate in reaction to the 2020 PA Annual Audit Report (AAR) recently released by the Commission on Audit.
State auditors chided the Army for granting “extremely huge amounts of cash advances ranging from P22 million to P89 million” to accountable officers (AOs) of the 1st Infantry Division last year.
They warned that the practice has rendered “government funds exposed to risk of loss or misappropriation.” “Additionally, it is impractical for cash in huge amounts to be carried and transported by AOs to pay each and every CAFGU member deployed to areas of Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga City and Basilan,"COA said, apparently noting that the said areas considered as infested with enemies of the state.
"It just goes to show that the AFP is awash with cash even in the middle of the pandemic. Incidentally, while funds are flowing, the spike in extra judicial killings (EJKs) and fake surrenderees are also happening. They must be held to account for these," Zarate said.
In the same AAR, state auditors assailed the failure of the PA to submit accounting reports and supporting documents to over P412.65 billion for audit, saying that this has “limited the scope of audit and precluded prompt examination of transactions, detection and correction of errors, deficiencies and timely reporting of audit results to Management.” The COA also called on the PA to demand the refund from the state-owned Philippine International Trading Corporation of over P2.3 billion in funds the military command transferred in order to fund the procurement of supplies and equipment and the implementation of projects.
The PITC has reportedly held on the fund for over three years now but failed to deliver the items to be procured.
“Verification also showed that fund transfers made in CYs 2019 and 2020 showed dismal delivery rate or percentage of completion of 0.01 percent to 0.22 percent respectively. The slow rate of delivery is indicative of poor monitoring in the procurement transactions of the PA with PITC,” COA stressed.