Part of P101.8-B loss incurred under Arroyo, COA chief says
Part of the P101.816 billion in losses incurred by the government in a 2011 Commission on Audit report included losses incurred under the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, COA head Grace Tan said Saturday.
Tan made the claim in a letter to the editor addressed to The Philippine Star, where she contested the "conclusion" that the P101.8 billion was lost to corruption last year alone.
"A careful reading of our Report would have readily disclosed... that the subject matter thereof were audits completed in 2011, but not necessarily covering the same year. In fact, many of the audits covered prior years," she said in the letter, whose contents were posted on the Official Gazette's website and Twitter account.
"For example, the audits of the ARMM, the Province of Maguindanao, Selected Municipalities of Maguindanao, and DPWH-ARMM, which revealed billions of pesos in pecuniary loss, covered the years 2007 to 2009 – and we so stated in the Report," she added.
Similarly, she said the findings of P35 billion in the aggregate relating to drawbacks, tax credit certificates, warehousing charges and outstanding accounts of surety companies "have been recurring in previous years."
The same goes true for our finding of uncollected receivables of the DOTC and the NLRC cash bonds, which were accumulated from prior years, she added.
"The cases referred to the Ombudsman involving about P4.674 billion also relate to transactions prior to 2010, e.g., the Fertilizer Fund Scam, the Palawan Malampaya Fund Share, Purchase of Helicopters and Pump Boats, Quedancor Swine Program," she said.
Also, she said the report may have referred to Table II.7-A of the COA report, where it itemized “Common Audit Findings.”
But she said the report never stated amounts reported in the Table were “lost to graft,” much more, “last year.”
As for unliquidated cash advances, Tan said the amount reported in Table II.7-A of the Report is ”as of” 31 December 2011, an "accumulation from prior years."
"Indeed, the pecuniary loss that we have found from our audits amount to great sums, and should be appropriately addressed. Towards this end, proper attribution to those accountable should be made and generalizations avoided," she said.
She also said pecuniary loss "does not necessarily result from graft, and it is only the courts that can make a judgment of graft."
"Our duty is to refer to the Ombudsman our audit findings, and this we have also stated in our Report," she said.
Tan said it was not fair to make such a conclusion especially to most of the agencies that have been found to have improved on their financial discipline and accountability to the people
Tan made the claim in a letter to the editor addressed to The Philippine Star, where she contested the "conclusion" that the P101.8 billion was lost to corruption last year alone.
"A careful reading of our Report would have readily disclosed... that the subject matter thereof were audits completed in 2011, but not necessarily covering the same year. In fact, many of the audits covered prior years," she said in the letter, whose contents were posted on the Official Gazette's website and Twitter account.
"For example, the audits of the ARMM, the Province of Maguindanao, Selected Municipalities of Maguindanao, and DPWH-ARMM, which revealed billions of pesos in pecuniary loss, covered the years 2007 to 2009 – and we so stated in the Report," she added.
Similarly, she said the findings of P35 billion in the aggregate relating to drawbacks, tax credit certificates, warehousing charges and outstanding accounts of surety companies "have been recurring in previous years."
The same goes true for our finding of uncollected receivables of the DOTC and the NLRC cash bonds, which were accumulated from prior years, she added.
"The cases referred to the Ombudsman involving about P4.674 billion also relate to transactions prior to 2010, e.g., the Fertilizer Fund Scam, the Palawan Malampaya Fund Share, Purchase of Helicopters and Pump Boats, Quedancor Swine Program," she said.
Also, she said the report may have referred to Table II.7-A of the COA report, where it itemized “Common Audit Findings.”
But she said the report never stated amounts reported in the Table were “lost to graft,” much more, “last year.”
As for unliquidated cash advances, Tan said the amount reported in Table II.7-A of the Report is ”as of” 31 December 2011, an "accumulation from prior years."
"Indeed, the pecuniary loss that we have found from our audits amount to great sums, and should be appropriately addressed. Towards this end, proper attribution to those accountable should be made and generalizations avoided," she said.
She also said pecuniary loss "does not necessarily result from graft, and it is only the courts that can make a judgment of graft."
"Our duty is to refer to the Ombudsman our audit findings, and this we have also stated in our Report," she said.
Tan said it was not fair to make such a conclusion especially to most of the agencies that have been found to have improved on their financial discipline and accountability to the people
