THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has P156.95 million earmarked as “charity funds” for various legislative districts that have remained idle and unmoving since 2020.
The Commission on Audit said the sum is listed under “miscellaneous payable-congressional districts (MPCC)” drawn from Small Town Lottery (STL) sales.
“As of December 31, 2022, (a) review of the MPCC account still showed a balance of P156.951 million pertaining to the allocated STL Charity Fund Share of the CDs (congressional districts) that remained unclaimed,” the audit team said.
The creation of the charity fund was approved by the PCSO Board of Directors when STL operations started.
Auditors said the money is drawn from “charity expenses-STL” and transferred to the MPCC account from which congressional districts can submit their claims.
A congressional district is required to submit a valid bank account where the charity fund will be credited.
“Verification of the accounting records disclosed that since October 2018, numerous unclaimed and stale checks were reverted back to the MPCC account totaling P33.026 million. It was likewise noted that from January 2020 up to date, no check issuances were drawn against the MPCC account,” auditors said.
PCSO officials said some congressional districts have made inquiries but could not claim their share from the STL Charity Fund because of an inability to issue official receipts to acknowledge the fund credit.
Likewise, since the checks are made out in favor of the congressional office, the lawmakers’ staff could not deposit the same check because the congressional district does not maintain a separate account in its name.
On the other hand, other congressional districts are not even aware of the requirements that they must submit to the STL charity fund since there was no memorandum of agreement (MOA) between them and the PCSO.
For its part, the COA pointed out that since local government units are already receiving a portion of the STL sales in their areas, releasing funds to congressional districts appears superfluous.
“Since LGUs with STL Operations are already receiving shares from STL Charity Fund, the grant of STL Shares to CDs (which is comprised of LGUs) is a duplication of the allocation of shares of the LGUs from STL Charity Fund,” the commission pointed out.
