OVP liquidation of P125-M confidential funds lacked official receipts, COA witness testifies

The Office of the Vice President (OVP) did not submit official receipts in its liquidation report of P125 million in confidential funds in 2022, a witness from the Commission on Audit (COA) said Wednesday. Lawyer Roderick Wamil, who served as a state auditor of the COA - Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (COA-ICFAO) from September 2014 to February 2024, said the OVP and DepEd submitted 849 acknowledgment receipts (ARs) in its liquidation report—marking the first time in his tenure that an agency solely used ARs. "Hindi ko masasabi na standard practice since ito po yung kauna-unahang beses na pure ARs ang sinubmit sa amin," Wamil told the Senate impeachment court on Day 13 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. (I cannot say it was standard practice since this is the first time that an agency only submitted ARs.) According to Wamil, government agencies utilizing confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs) are mandated to submit supporting documents such as sales invoice or official receipts for their respective liquidation reports. Asked if the COA could verify whether or not an agency procured the item they indicated in their liquidation report without sales invoices or official receipts, Wamil answered: "Kung sinubmit po sana sa amin ang official receipts or sales invoice, hindi namin po masasabi based on documents alone." (If only they submitted the official receipts or sales invoice. We cannot verify it based on the documents they presented alone.) Wamil is a prosecution witness for Article 1, which accuses the Vice President of committing impeachable offenses due to systematic, misappropriation, and irregular liquidation of confidential funds amounting to P500 million released to the OVP and P112.5 million released to the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as Education chief. — VDV, GMA News