If President Duterte had his way of auditing the performance of the Commission on Audit from 2011 to 2021, his findings and decision, being a former fiscal, could be more devastating than the decision of the Supreme Court on the Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF and the Disbursement Acceleration Program or DAP of Philippine lawmakers.
Retired state auditors are quick to bet that the three former CoA audit chiefs and the Republic senators will be in trouble.
A clarification statement by the Commission on Audit on the findings in the audit of the accounts and financial operations of the Department of Health, particularly in the handling of funds for Covid-19, says that the report itself does not mention any findings by the auditors of funds lost to corruption.
For example, some of the findings mentioned the deficiencies involving Covid-19 amounting to P67.32 billion resulting from the non-submission of documents or supporting papers.
But how can CoA explain the blazing headline on the P67.32 billion for Covid-19 being lost to corruption?
During the House hearing on CoA’s audit of the DoH, Secretary Francisco Duque lamented how the report provided a damning judgment on the department even if the information was not yet conclusive.
Earlier, President Duterte asked CoA to stop flagging agencies and to refrain from publishing their reports as they tainted agencies with “corruption by perception.”
During the same hearing, then CoA Chairman Michael Aguinaldo assured that the commission would continue making and publishing audit reports of government agencies despite criticisms from Duterte and Duque.
“Aguinaldo rebuffs Duterte: CoA has no authority to audit Red Cross,” was the national news on 3 September 2021.
The night before, Duterte demanded a COA audit of the Philippine National Red Cross to see if the humanitarian organization had been spending its funds correctly.
“The money you have accumulated all these years would run into billions, and I want a real audit of the Red Cross,” he said.
Duterte’s demand for a PNRC audit was widely seen as having been triggered by his ongoing feud with Senator Richard Gordon, the PNRC chairman.
Gordon was then-chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigating alleged multi-billion peso irregularities in the procurement by the government of allegedly overpriced face masks, face shields, and other medical needs for Covid-19.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman asked the CoA chairman: “Do you believe that CoA has no jurisdiction to audit the Red Cross?”
The chief state auditor said he could only confirm that they could audit payments made by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth to the PNRC. But this was an audit of a state insurer and not an international humanitarian body.
Duterte had drawn flak for his statements on CoA, which had released annual audit reports that disclosed numerous irregularities government agencies committed in their fund’s disbursement and financial transactions in 2020.
President Duterte declared that he would have CoA audited if elected vice president in the 2022 elections.
Opposition and administration allies in both the Senate and the House of Representatives declared that the executive department had no authority to do it, adding that CoA was a constitutional body independent of all government branches.
Learned men in the academe and highly respected professionals in government were sharp and keen in their discernment of President Duterte’s point that, indeed, if he were given his way to audit the performance of CoA from 2011 to 2021, his findings and decision, being a former fiscal, could be more devastating than the decision of the Supreme Court on the DAP and pork barrel for lawmakers.
(To be continued)