COA auditor: VP's P125-M confidential fund liquidation marred by irregularities

Liquidation documents submitted by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to justify its use of P125 million in confidential funds in 2022 are marred by irregularities, a former state auditor from the Commission on Audit (COA) testified on Monday. Roderick Wamil, former COA-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office state auditor, made the testimony during Day 11 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. Wamil stated that the OVP submitted acknowledgment receipts or proof of receipt of the confidential fund instead of sales invoices or official receipts, as required under a 2015 Joint Circular governing the use of confidential and intelligence funds. During direct examination by private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan, Wamil said the following acknowledgment receipts of confidential funds violated the 2015 circular: “Dapat po kasi pasok siya doon sa coverage ng kanilang cash advance of confidential fund based on the document submitted to ICFAO. Based on these [documents], hindi pasok doon sa coverage,” Wamil said. (It should be covered by the 2022 cash advance for confidential fund. These liquidation documents do not cover the 2022 expenses.) “Wala po silang [other supporting] documents na sinubmit. Ito lang pong acknowledgment receipts (There were no other supporting documents submitted),” Wamil added. Wamil also said that the confidentiality of confidential funds is not absolute. “Ang confidential po mismo ay ’yung paggagamitan, hindi ’yung pagbibigyan. Magkaibang bagay po kasi iyon,” Wamil said. (What is confidential is the purpose, not the recipient of the fund. Those are two different things.) Wamil said the 2022 confidential fund allocation was also spent by the OVP for the provision of medical and food aid worth as much as P40 million, as well as payment of incentives/rewards or traveling expenses relative to the confidential operations of the OVP worth P10 million which are also not provided under the 2015 Joint Circular. “Lahat po ng kanilang payment of rewards ay walang naka-attach na any document supporting the success of the information-gathering activity or surveillance activity on account of the information given by the informer,” Wamil said. (All their submissions for payment of rewards do not have supporting documents showing success of the information-gathering activity or surveillance activity on account of the information given by the informer.) —AOL, GMA News