THE Commission on Audit has questioned at least 10 government-owned and -controlled corporations over their failure to remit P68 billion in dividends for 10 years.
Those identified violating Republic Act 7656, or the GOCC Dividend Law, were the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. of P27.279 billion; Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., P23.817 billion; Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., P15.401 billion; National Food Authority, P937.602 million; Philippine Sugar Corp., P441.256 million; Philippine Postal Corp., P356.4 million; Local Water Utilities Administration, P343.191 million; Philippine Rice Research Institute, P82.274 million; Philippine Aerospace Development Corp., P6.84 million, and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, none at all.
Based on a 2015 annual financial report, PSALM should have remitted P29.3 billion in dividends to the government with its net income of P58.7 billion in 2004 to 2014.
It only paid dividends of P2.1 billion from 2004 to 2010.
On the other hand, PDIC under-remitted its dividends through the exclusion of “reserves for insurance losses” in its declared incomes from 2004 to 2015.
PDIC declared a net income of P12.97 billion despite having reserves for insurance losses of P37.3 billion.
It should have remitted dividend payments of P25.1 billion. But it only remitted P6.4 billion with a balance of P18.6 billion as of last year.
Also, the gaming corporation under-remitted its dividends from 2011 to 2015 for declaring its income based on gaming revenues of P153.3 billion.
Not included in the GOCC’s declaration was income from “related services” including collections from concessionaires and foreign exchange which totaled P51.9 billion, CoA said.
Under RA 7656, GOCCs must declare their annual income after tax and other deductions and remit dividends equivalent to 50 percent of their net income to the Bureau of Treasury.