The Office of the Vice President (OV) under Vice President Sara Duterte was unable to submit official receipts or sales invoices for the purchase of physical goods, including tables, chairs, desktop computers and printers using confidential funds. 

This was according to Xylene Mae del Campo, a witness from the Commission on Audit-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (COA-ICFAO), when Senate Impeachment Court Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero inquired about the agency's procedure of asking for receipts.

During the resumption of the impeachment trial on Wednesday, August 12, Escudero asked the House prosecution witness whether invoices or receipts were required under Joint Circular No. 2015-01 as proof of purchases of food, medicine, and other supplies.

Del Campo, who issued Notices of Disallowance against the OVP after it spent P125-million in confidential funds in just 11 days from Dec. 20, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2022, including during holidays, replied in the affirmative stating that commercial establishments selling basic office supplies or commercial goods are not considered confidential.

The witness also said proper invoices are strictly required by the COA to prove that actual purchases occured.

“When we buy supplies for food, medicine…it’s standard procedure that there would be receipts that will be issued by the establishment where they bought the supplies, food and medicine,” Del Campo told the Court, in her response to the Presiding Officer.

“Yes (it is needed), so we can ascertain that the funds were indeed used for the purchases of supplies, food and medicines,” she said.

When Escudero asked if it is the same standard the COA applied to other government agencies, Del Campo also confirmed this, saying these are long-established auditing standards. 

But despite this, the OVP, through Chief of Staff Zuleika Lopez told the COA in a March 13, 2024 letter that it was “unnecessary to request for invoices or official receipts as evidence of payments due to the confidential nature of surveillance and monitoring activities.”

“However, all of these pertains to purchases. So for us, it is more sufficient if you are able to show the sales invoice and official receipts,” Del Campo said.

“Receipts are needed so we can prove that they really used the funds to buy tables and chairs,” she said.

According to Del Campo, part of the items that the OVP said it acquired using confidential funds include P34.9-million for “various goods” as reward payment, P24.9-million for “medicines” also as reward payment, P11.8-million for “purchased supplies”, P3-million for desktop computers and printers, P500,000 for tables and chairs, and P10-million for van rentals and trucking services.