Budget rule on disclosure of audit findings slammed

A MILITANT lawmaker yesterday slammed a special provision in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA) which requires the validation of audit findings of the Commission on Audit’s (COA) before these can be made public.

“Kinailangan pa ng subpoena sa COA para maglabas ng report gayong dapat naman talaga ilabas ‘yan ng gobyerno dahil pera ng taumbayan ang pinag-uusapan,” Brosas said in a statement (A subpoena was even needed for COA to release a report when the government should readily release it since it involves public funds),” said Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela).

Rep. France Castro urged the House to revisit the special provision cited by Brosas and pushed for its removal from the 2025 General Appropriations Act, saying it threatens the search for transparency and accountability.

Brosas’ statement came after the House Committee on Appropriations, during the budget hearing on the proposed 2025 allocation for COA on Tuesday, issued a subpoena requiring the agency to submit its audit reports on the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) for fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

Prior to the issuance of the subpoena, COA chairman Gamaliel Cordoba said he could not discuss the findings in the audit reports because of the nature of the funds involved.

Castro and Brosas wanted to find out how the OVP under Vice President Sara Duterte spent the P125 million confidential funds that it received from the Office of the President in 2022 in just 11 days.

Brosas said “secret funds are prone to misuse and corruption” as she urged the COA to ensure that it will be able to audit all agencies with confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs).

Agencies with CIF file annual reports to the COA’s Intelligence and Confidential Fund Audit Office (ICFAO) since secret funds are not part of the agency’s regular audit.

Brosas cited what she said is the alarming allocation of CIF in the 2024 national budget, with the Office of the President receiving the highest allocation at P4.56 billion.

For next year, she noted that President Marcos Jr. is seeking an “unprecedented” total of P10.29 billion for these funds, broken down into P4.37