The Commission on Audit (COA)'s rules governing the audit of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) should be updated and expanded to ensure greater accountability, Senator-Judge Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said Wednesday, Aug. 5.  

In Day 13 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, Lacson raised the need to revisit the Joint Memorandum Circular after COA auditor Roderick Wamil said that the agency's audit of CIF is limited to a document-based compliance audit under current guidelines.

The former national police chief also raised the issue of whether auditors assigned to CIFs should be granted appropriate security clearance to access classified documents needed for a thorough audit.

Lacson said that aside from relying on documents, physical audits should also be done by COA.

“Why are you limited to paper audits? Don't you have physical audits? It seems your current auditing system is lacking. How would you know if the one signing the acknowledgment receipts is a legitimate person if you cannot determine if the person behind the alias is a real person?” Lacson told the COA auditor during his interjection at the Vice President's impeachment trial.

The senator cited his experience in intelligence operations during his law enforcement career and when he was the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief.

“You may want to recommend an amendment to your Joint Memorandum Circular. Your current auditing process is lacking. In fairness to the concerned offices or persons being audited, due process must be complete,” he pointed out.

“If you rely on documents only based on your joint memorandum circular, you don't go beyond that,”  he added.

Wamil, who served with the COA's Intelligence and Confidential Fund Audit Office (ICFAO) from September 2014 to February 2024, said that the ICFAO's compliance audit is conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Joint Memorandum Circular.

During his stint with the ICFAO, Wamil audited the liquidation reports for the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd).

Lacson raised the issue on the auditing rules on CIFs after Wamil testified that the Joint Memorandum Circular does not prescribe a specific document to establish the success of a surveillance or intelligence operation.

He suggested that after-surveillance or after-intelligence reports be recognized as evidence of the success of a surveillance or intelligence-gathering activity.

Wamil admitted that auditors currently determine compliance by looking for a "causal link" between the information provided by an informer and the outcome of the operation.

“Would an after-surveillance or after-intelligence report of a particular agent suffice to be considered as evidence of success? I'm not referring to the entire operation. But if you conduct surveillance and prepare an after-surveillance report, would you consider that as an evidence of success?" he said.

At the same time, Lacson also questioned how auditors can conduct a thorough audit of CIFs without the appropriate security clearance to access classified documents.

He explained that classified documents, including the true identities corresponding to the aliases used in intelligence operations, remain secured until the intelligence-gathering project is terminated and the documents are declassified.

Lacson said that without the appropriate security clearance, auditors cannot be expected to fully examine the nature of an intelligence project or operation.

“How can you audit properly if you do not know the nature of the intelligence project or operation?” he pointed out.