THE Commission on Audit (COA) has upheld the claim of the Social Security System (SSS) against the Philippine Senate for underpayment of rent on its 15,000 square meter lot on Diokno Boulevard, Pasay City from May to December 2014.
The Senate is using the SSS property as a parking lot.
In a decision released last week, the COA Commission Proper sustained the recommendation of its supervising auditor that the pension fund’s claim is “valid and legal” in light of documents showing that the Senate has remitted rental payments based on the old rates of P813,600 per month instead of P854,250 each month as per the updated lease contract.
With the difference of P40,650 between the old and the new rental rates unpaid for eight months, the SSS demanded payment of P325,200 exclusive of value-added tax (VAT).
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said he would check with Senate Secretary Rey Bantug about the COA ruling.
“Tanong nating ‘yan kay Sec. Bantug, our Senate secretary. Guys, I have no clue about that. Thank you,” he said in a message to reporters covering the Senate.
Records show that the Senate entered into a contract with the SSS on November 21, 1996 for the lease of the latter’s 15,000 sqm property at P54.24 per sqm.
The said contract was renewed by the two parties several times until the third renewal covering May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2020, where the Senate agreed to increase the rent to P56.95 per sqm.
In a letter dated August 8, 2018, the Senate informed the SSS that it was unable to pay the rent differential since its budget for leasing office spaces was under the previous year’s (2017) unbooked obligations.
Replying to the SSS petition, the Senate acknowledged its obligation over the unpaid rent difference but objected to the charge of P39,024 as VAT since this was not stipulated in the last renewal of contract.
While sustaining the validity of the claim of unpaid rent balance, the COA CP said the claim for VAT was unsupported.
