Members of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability filing the two House bills (PPAB)

Members of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability filed on Wednesday, Dec. 11, two measures that aim to introduce stricter requirements and guidelines in the utilization of confidential funds.

The House panel, headed by Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua, has been investigating the alleged misuse of public funds under Vice President Sara Duterte.

Under House Bill (HB) No. 11192, or the proposed Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF) Utilization and Accountability Act, confidential funds shall only be allocated to government agencies related to national security, peace and order, and intelligence gathering.

The measure noted that, during the hearings conducted by the House panel, it was found that there was a “mismatch” in the granting of confidential funds.

“It was evident that confidential funds allotted to civilian agencies were used to augment its operations and not for national security——contrary to the intent of granting it,” the bill read.

The Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under the tenure of Vice President Sara Duterte as agency secretary are the subject of a congressional inquiry into the alleged misuse of P612.5 million of confidential funds.

Recent hearings of the Good Government Committee discovered that there was irregular utilization of such funds from both offices.

In particular, the Chua panel flagged the DepEd’s spending on safe houses and youth leadership summits while using dubious documents to justify the use of such funds.

With this, HB No. 11192 seeks to limit the spending of confidential funds to national defense and security operations, law enforcement, prevention and response to terrorism and organized crime, and emergency responses to national crises where the immediate release of information could jeopardize public safety or national interests.

For the purpose of public disclosure, the measure mandates a summary of the allocation and purpose of the confidential funds to be disclosed before the public.

However, it specifies that this should be done in a manner that does not endanger national security or law enforcement operations.

Additionally, the bill stated that the confidentiality status of the confidential funds shall be disregarded once the Commission on Audit (COA) issues a notice of disallowance.

The proposed legislation also identified that the failure to comply with documentary requirements on the liquidation of the funds and submission of reports shall be considered prima facie evidence of misuse and misappropriation.

Also included in this is the disbursement of funds to government agencies and activities not directly related to national security, as well as relaying of funds to another person who shall make further disbursement.

Once enacted, violators of this measure shall suffer the penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office, including loss of benefits.

The head of agency and special disbursing officer (SDO) shall be jointly liable in case of failure to render accounts, misappropriation, or misuse of funds—whether through negligence or intentionally.

Further accountability

As an additional measure to ensure accountability in the utilization of confidential funds, lawmakers also filed HB No. 11193 , which was intended to regulate SDOs.

As cited in the bill, SDOs are appointed by the head of agency and not initially accountable.

It pointed out this set-up made it susceptible for SDOs and the head of agency to “abuse fund disbursement by the millions and billions without proper liquidation with impunity”.

“It is nigh time that standards be put in place to regulate SDOs not only disbursing confidential and intelligence funds, but regular funds as well, and imposing sanctions for improper disbursement of these funds be it intentionally or through negligence,” the bill read.

HB No. 11193 says the SDOs shall be accountable to the amount received for disbursement.

The SDO shall have an approved fidelity bond in an amount equivalent to their cash accountability and whose net worth can cover at least 50 percent to 100 percent of their cash accountability.

While it maintains that these officers can be appointed by the head of agency, the bill stated that they should be a permanent official of the agency with a salary grade of 24 and an educational background related to accounting, auditing, or finance.