COA finds 10 GOCCs failed to remit P68B in dividends to gov’t

Ten government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) have failed to remit P68.7 billion in dividends to the government for as long as 10 years, the Commission on Audit has found.

In its 2015 Annual Financial Report on GOCCs released last October 24, state auditors found that the erring GOCCs violated the provisions of Republic Act 7656 or the GOCC Dividend Law by their failure to declare, record, remit or under-remit their dividends.

The law requires GOCCs to declare their annual income after tax and other deductions and remit dividends equivalent to 50 percent of their net income to the Bureau of Treasury.

On the list of errant GOCCs are:

• Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) - P27.279 billion;
• Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp (PDIC) - P23.817 billion;
• Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) - P15.401 billion;
• National Food Authority (NFA) - P937.602 million;
• Philippine Sugar Corp (Philsucor) – P441.256 million
• Philippine Postal Corp (PPC) – P356.4 million
• Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) – P343.191 million
• Philippine Rice Research Institute (PRRI) – P82.274 million
• Philippine Aerospace Development Corp. (PADC) – P6.84 million
• Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) – no dividend declared

COA’s 2015 audit report on PSALM showed it should have remitted P29.3 billion in dividends to the government since its net income from 2004 to 2014 amounted to P58.7 billion.

PSALM, however only paid dividends totaling to P2.1 billion over that 10-year period.

Meanwhile, COA said PDIC under-remitted its dividends by excluding “reserves for insurance losses” in its declared earnings from 2004 to 2015.

For that period, PDIC declared net income of P12.97 billion even if it has reserves for insurance losses totaling P37.3 billion.

State auditors said PDIC should have remitted dividend payments amounting to P25.1 billion instead of P6.4 billion, or a balance of P18.6 billion as of 2015.

PAGCOR was likewise found to have under-remitted its dividends from 2011 to 2015 since it only declared income based on gaming revenues amounting to P153.3 billion.

Excluded in the GOCC’s declaration was income from “related services” including collections from concessionaires and foreign exchange which totaled P51.9 billion. — RSJ, GMA News