Manila: A Commission on Audit (COA) auditor told the Senate impeachment court Monday that confidentiality over an operation does not excuse the Office of the Vice President (OVP) from identifying ordinary suppliers or producing appropriate receipts for purchases charged against confidential funds.
According to Philippines News Agency, former Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO) state auditor Roderick Wamil stated that the OVP's revised accomplishment report and subsequent responses still left unresolved deficiencies involving documentary evidence for payments, rewards, and purchases. Wamil emphasized that while the intended use of funds is confidential, the identities of suppliers are not, highlighting a distinction between the two.
After receiving the OVP's revised accomplishment report, the audit team considered the additional submission and issued a supplemental Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM). Wamil explained that this second AOM reiterated the initial observation that the OVP had not submitted documents showing the actual payments covered by its report.
Among the questioned items in the revised report were PHP40 million for medical and food aid and PHP10 million for incentives or traveling expenses allegedly related to OVP confidential operations. These expenses, Wamil stated, were not among the allowable confidential-fund expenditures enumerated in Item 4.8 of Joint Circular No. 2015-01. The OVP had not submitted any documents to support the payment of rewards by the date of the AOM.
Wamil also noted the absence of a special budget request and the necessary approvals from higher authorities, highlighting that a disbursement voucher was approved by Assistant Secretary Lemuel Ortonio instead of the agency's head. The OVP did submit responses containing documentary evidence of payments in the form of acknowledgment receipts, yet further deficiencies were observed.
The receipts, according to Wamil, reflected rewards paid in cash, medicines, and various goods but lacked records establishing successful intelligence activity resulting from informers' information. The submissions also covered purchases such as medicines, goods, supplies, tables, chairs, desks, printers, and computers. However, Wamil stressed that these purchases should have been supported with sales invoices and official receipts instead of just acknowledgment receipts.
The defense moved to strike Wamil's answers regarding whether the identities of drugstores, groceries, and hardware stores were confidential, questioning his competence to provide that opinion. However, Presiding Officer Francis Escudero denied the motion, ruling that Wamil was competent to explain how he evaluated the OVP submissions under Joint Circular No. 2015-01.
