State auditors flagged the National Youth Commission (NYC) for its training and traveling expenses worth more than P36 million.
The Commission on Audit (COA) in a 2022 audit report on the NYC noted that the validity and propriety of the expenses could not be ascertained due to “lack of proper planning of the various activities of the commission, lack of documentation and improper processing.”
The COA said included in the flagged expenses were P1.28 million in “excessive” payments for hotel room reservations for NYC and Sangguniang Kabataan leaders in various parts of the country including Boracay, Baguio City, Bohol, Batangas, Ilocos Norte.
The NYC said unoccupied hotel rooms including participants not showing up for various reasons including testing positive for COVID-19 were a factor in the expenses.
“Although plausible the above-justifications could not be validated and accounted for since these were unsubstantiated for lack of proof such as medical records and letters from the participants,” the COA’s audit team said.
The COA report however noted that the NYC agreed to the recommendations of the audit team that proper planning for projects will be ensured and all disbursements will undergo proper channels of review and approval.
The COA also flagged P1.03 million spent on “excessive” tokens since the quantity of the tokens were beyond the distributed quantity for the participants.
The NYC however assured the audit team that necessary measures will be implemented.
“The management commented that they will institute measures to regulate and control the fund’s allocation for the purchase of
tokens/giveaways to ensure that the agency is exercising due diligence in the disbursement of government funds,” the audit team noted in the
report.