No audit memo yet from COA about confidential funds — OVP spox
By Raymund Antonio and Raymund Antonio
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) has not received an audit observation memorandum (AOM) from the Commission on Audit (COA), its spokesman Reynold Munsayac said on Monday, Sept. 25, amid questions on how the OVP spent its controversial 2022 confidential funds.
Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte (OVP photo)
“As of now wala pa po kami natatanggap na AOM from COA (we have not received the AOM from COA),” Munsayac, a lawyer, replied in a Viber message to the media.
This was his response to queries about COA’s disclosure during the House budget hearing on how it issued an AOM regarding the spending of the 2022 confidential fund the Office of the President (OP) transferred to Vice President Sara Duterte in December 2022.
According to documents from COA’s website, an AOM is a “written notification to the agency head and concerned officer/s informing of deficiencies noted in the audit of accounts, operations or transactions and requiring comment thereto and/or submission of documentary and other information requirements within a reasonable period.”
During the House budget hearing, Appropriations Committee Senior Vice Chairperson and Marikina City 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo said that the P125-million in confidential fund allocated to the OVP in 2022 by the OP was spent in 11 days, and not in 19 days as was previously reported.
Quoting COA, the lawmaker shared that the OVP submitted its liquidation report in January 2023 and was issued an AOM on Sept. 18.
Quimbo added that COA has assured Congress it will submit a full report on Nov. 15 since audit is still ongoing.
Questions on the constitutionality were raised about Vice President Sara Duterte’s 2022 confidential funds because there was no line item for it under the 2022 budget of former vice president Leni Robredo.
Though Quimbo defended its constitutionality and Duterte’s allies referred to what former OVP spokesman Barry Gutierrez called an “account category heading,” and not a line item, she said during the budget hearing that spending the fund in 11 days also surprised her.