THE Philippine Communications Operations Office has a P2.8-million unliquidated cash advances as of December last year.
The Commission on Audit cited most of the cash advances were allocatted for the PCOO operations for President Rodrigo Duterte’s foreign and local trips.
At least 14 government officials and personnel failed to liquidate their cash advances with the proper timeframe.
CoA said any delay in cash advances “signified Management’s inadequacy in dealing with emergencies.”
Included on the list were Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella and PCOO assistant secretary Kris Ablan.
A stay-over of the Aquino administration, media relations undersecretary, was tagged.
The Commission mentioned Abella’s failure to liquidate P1.92 million worth of cash advances for the President’s trips to Brunei, Laos and Indonesia.
Abella, however, submitted a liquidation report on Nov. 9, 2016, or 53 days late, while Ablan failed to give a liquidation of P228,700 in cash advances for a “National Communications Workshop” held on Sept. 15, 2016.
He submitted a report 87 days beyond the deadline.
On the other hand, Marfil—full name not disclosed— also had unliquidated expenses as of December 2016 of P19,030 in cash advances for “unrefunded balance of media operational expenses.”
He submitted a delayed liquidation report by at least one year.
PCOO assistant secretary Ramon Cualoping III incurred an unliquidated cash advance of P90,747.66 intended for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits in Laos attended by Duterte, and presidential trips to Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.
Even the Media Accreditation and Relations Office also failed to liquidate some of its cash advances.
“The Table showed delays in the liquidation of the travel advances for as long as 77 days in disregard of the rules and regulations on the granting of cash advance,” the CoA report read.
Based on CoA’s guidelines, cash advances for foreign trips must be liquidated within 60 days after return to the Philippines, while local travels’ liquidation must be completed and submitted within 30 days after the return of the personnel to their “permanent official station.”
Moreover, P22 million in additional cash advances were given to 36 personnel with delinquencies in previous cash advances, a violation of Presidential Decree No. 1445 and CoA Circular 97-002.
The PCOO through its accounting office reasoned out that the release of added cash advances despite delinquencies was granted due to the “urgency of the official trip or project.”
Its management urged CoA to take into consideration special functions of some employees “whose schedules need to follow the consecutive travels of the President,” and that the President’s overseas trips “happened one after another, thus the delay in the liquidation of some cash advances.”
“The detrimental effect of emergencies, however, could be managed through adherence to Section 51, Volume III of the Government Accounting and Auditing Manual which requires that Management adhere to approved policies and procedures through continuous supervision of personnel by reviewing their work systematically and making them aware of their duties responsibilities, and accountabilities,” the report read.
