The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has confirmed that the third party auditor contracted by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) submitted spurious documents, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said on Friday, February 10.
Gatchalian said this was relayed to him by BSP Governor Felipe Medalla in a letter to his office saying that an affiliate of Soleil Chartered Bank has disowned any bank certification issued in favor of Global ComRCI.
Global ComRCI consortium had entered into a 10-year, P6-billion contract with PAGCOR to conduct an independent audit of POGO’s gross gaming revenues.
During the last hearing of the Senate ways and means committee headed by Gatchalian, PAGCOR presented a bank guarantee purportedly issued by Soleil to Global ComRCI in the amount of $25-million in an attempt to justify its contract with the third party auditor.
But in his letter to the senator, Medalla said Soleil Capitale’s Chief Executive Officer Raj C. Astavakra clarified that the company’s affiliate Soleil Chartered Bank is based abroad and does not operate within the Philippines.
Medalla also said that Soleil Capitale has no record of such document or any correspondence with regard to Global ComRCI’s bank certification. Astavakra also claimed to be not aware of the bank certification.
In the same letter, Medalla said Soleil Chartered does not have a pending application for a banking license with the BSP and that it did not receive nor process any banking application from the said entity based on BSP’s records reckoning from 2014.
As per the BSP official, only those authorized by the BSP to operate as a bank may issue a letter of credit or certification, according to Gatchalian.
The BSP also noted discrepancies in the bank logo in the bank certification submitted by Global ComRCI.
“It can be deduced clearly from the BSP letter that Global ComRCI submitted a spurious bank certificate to PAGCOR,” he said.
“This brings to question not just the legitimacy of the contract but also the credibility of Global ComRCI to conduct a 3rd-party audit of POGO gaming revenues,” Gatchalian stressed.
Gatchalian has filed a resolution calling for a separate probe by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee into the third party contract between PAGCOR and Global ComRCI.