THE House of Representatives was informed Wednesday that there was no confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) item in the 2022 budget of the Office of the Vice President that supported the request of Vice President Sara Duterte for P125 million in CIF.
“No such item or appropriation in the OVP budget,” DBM Undersecretary Rolando Toledo told the House Committee on Good gGovernment and Public Accountability chaired by Manila Rep. Joel Chua.
Toledo was responding to questions raised by ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, who said the grant of CIF to OVP in 2022 was illegal since there was no item of appropriation in the OVP budget to support it.
Toledo said Vice President Duterte’s request for CIF was justified as part of her “governance engagement and socio-economic programs.”
He said the P125 million was taken from the contingent fund in the 2022 national budget, since there was no specific appropriation for the purpose.
The constitutionality of the grant of this amount in CIF to the OVP has been challenged before the Supreme Court.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has reported that the P125 million was used up in 11 days, or an average of P11.364 million a day, between December 21 up to the end of the year in 2022.
The COA has also found numerous irregularities in the use of the money and has in fact disallowed expenses amounting to more than P73 million, or almost half of the OVP CIF.
More than P59 million of the disallowed amount were for the purchase of “various goods” amounting to P34.857 million and “medicines” costing P24.930 million, which were declared by OVP as “payment for rewards” for informants.
An additional P3.5 million described as “payment for chairs, tables, desktop computers, and printers” was also not allowed in audit.
A COA representative told the good government committee that Vice President Sara Duterte and two other OVP officials “liable” for the questionable expenses have the option of appealing the disallowance decision with the COA proper or return the money to the government.
The official said the Vice President has 180 days or six months to make an appeal, while the COA proper has two months to make a final decision.
The COA representative’s statement drew a rebuke from Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Stephen Paduano, who protested, “That’s a total of eight months. That’s too long!”
Cagayan Rep. Joseph Lara said the eight-month period in deciding on disallowances causes delays in the filing of criminal charges against public officers mishandling public funds.
“Worse, you are being perceived as in cahoots with these officials or employee, which is not fair to you,” he told COA representatives.
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