DBM to provide COA with documentary evidence regarding Malampaya fund misuse

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will provide the Commission on Audit (COA) with documentary evidence in probing the roles of former Budget officials in the supposed misuse of funds from the Malampaya gas-to-power facility.

The funds amounting to P38.8 billion were supposedly released under questionable circumstances from 2004 to 2015, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Wednesday.

"We are willing to provide necessary evidence, salary releases, etc ... We will cooperate fully on whatever the direction of the government on this matter," Diokno told reporters during a breakfast forum in Pasig City.

The COA recommended an investigation to determine who among the Budget officials and employees might be responsible for the suspicious release of funds, and sue those involved in misconduct.

In an 80-page Sectoral Performance Audit report released on October 30, the commission found that the DBM disbursed 22.41 percent or P38.807 billion of the P173.3 billion collected by the government from January 2004 to May 2012.

The COA said such disbursements "may not be considered proper in view of the compliance with existing laws, rules and regulations."

The audit of the Malampaya fund releases spanned the terms of Budget Secretaries Emilia Boncodin, Romulo Neri, Rolando Andaya, and Butch Abad  under the administrations of former Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III.

Diokno said the COA findings should be a "clear message" to the entire bureaucracy to be careful with public funds.

Based on the audit report, there was misuse of funds since the disbursements were used for "other purposes" outside energy exploration and development as mandated, the Budget chief noted.

"If I were the DBM secretary then, this won't happen ... It has always been our policy that we do not release funds unless there is legal basis," Diokno said.

The DBM is not pursuing its own investigation into the matter as it is not a quasi-judicial body.

"We will leave it to the solicitor general, the Department of Justice ... Basta we will provide whatever is necessary," Diokno said. — VDS, GMA News