THE office of President Duterte spent 61 percent more in 2020, ending the year with a P16.193 billion tab compared to P9.935 billion in 2019.
This was shown in the Statement of Financial Performance as of yearend 2020 attached to the audit report on the Office of the President (OP) released by the Commission on Audit last August 6.
Salaries and benefits of officials and employees of the OP showed a slight decrease year on year from P1.135 billion to P1.111 billion under the personnel services.
However, spending under the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) jacked up the figure at P14.98 billion in 2020 from only P8.71 billion the year before — an increase of P6.27 billion.
The breakdown of the MOOE under the OP’s 2020 financial statements indicated steep surges under three items: donations, confidential expenses, and intelligence expenses.
Donations in 2020 ballooned to P9.347 billion or more than twice the P4.543 billion expense for the same purpose in 2019.
Previous years’ audits explained donations pertain to financial assistance released to grantees under the Office of the President’s Socio-Civic Project Funds (SCPF).
Confidential expenses for the past year totaled P2.322 billion, an increase of more than P1 billion compared to P1.25 billion in the preceding year.
Intelligence expenses, on the other hand, also went up by exactly P1 billion to end 2020 at P2.25 billion from P1.25 billion in 2019.
The COA had earlier explained that confidential expenses pertain to money paid for or spent on surveillance activities in civilian government agencies.
Intelligence expenses are related to intelligence information gathering activities of uniformed, military personnel and intelligence
