THE Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent P125 million in “unauthorized” confidential funds in the last 19 days of December 2022, a militant lawmaker said yesterday, citing a report by the Commission on Audit (COA).
Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT), a member of the Makabayan bloc, noted that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released on December 13, 2022 a special allotment release order (SARO) to the OVP amounting to P221,424,000 “to cover Financial Assistance/Subsidy and Confidential Fund per Office of the President Approval dated November 28, 2022.”
As explained in the COA audit report of the OVP for 2022, Castro said the fund was comprised of P125,000,000 in confidential funds and P96,424,000 for Medical Assistance.
But Castro said the OVP has no authorized allocation for confidential funds in the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which was approved by the last Congress during the incumbency of former President Duterte and former Vice President Leni Robredo.
Likewise, she said that the guidelines on the use of confidential funds states that it can only be spent on “surveillance-related activities such as purchase of information, rental of transport vehicle, rental and maintenance of safehouses, purchase or rental of supplies, material and equipment, payment of rewards to informers, and uncovering/prevention of certain illegal activities.”
The current guideline on confidential funds states that only agencies “expressly provided budget allocation for CF” in the General Appropriations Act are entitled to the same.
Castro also said that in its statement of appropriations, allotments, obligations, disbursements, and balances (SAAODB) as of December 31, 2022, the OVP reported that of the released amount, it had obligated and disbursed P155,000,000, with P66,424,000 remaining as unobligated allotment.
However, in the OVP’s SAAODB as of the quarter ending June 30, 2023, Castro said the OVP reported the same amount of P66,424,000 under “Contingent Fund: Financial Assistance/Subsidy-Others.”
“This implies that the whole P125,000,000 in confidential funds was already spent by December 31, 2022, along with P30,000,000 of the financial assistance, for a total of P155,000,000,” she said. “So in short, the OVP spent the whole P125 million confidential fund given to her office in a span of just 19 days, from December 13 to December 31, 2022. This translates to P6,578,947.37 or almost P7 million per day.”
“Nagtataka kami kung paano mauubos ang ganoon kalaking pera para sa ganyang gawain sa napakaikling panahon (We’re wondering how such a huge amount of money can be spent in such short amount of time),” said the deputy minority leader.
The OVP did not immediately release a statement when asked for comment.
Castro said she is hoping that Vice President Sara Duterte will be able to personally explain to lawmakers how the money was spent when the House Committee on Appropriations tackles the OVP’s proposed budget for 2024 this week.
