Duterte admin’s intel fund spending hit P13.46 billion in 2019 —COA

The Duterte administration’s spending on confidential, intelligence, and extraordinary funds (CIF) reached over P13.46 billion in 2019, an increase of P2.03 billion from 2018, the Commission on Audit’s (COA) 2019 Annual Financial Report (AFR) showed.

Based on the 463-page 2019 Annual Financial Report, intelligence fund expenses accounted for P6.12 billion, while extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses reached P4.77 billion.

Confidential expenses, on the other hand, were recorded at P2.57 billion.

2019 was also the fourth straight year that the Duterte administration's CIF spending was higher than the previous year's.

From P3.6 billion in 2015, the CIF spending under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte increased to P4.4 billion in 2016, more than doubled in 2017 with P9.4 billion, and hiked to P11.4 billion in 2018.

Congress is top spender of intel funds

Congress spent the highest amount of CIF in 2019 with P3.98 billion, beating the Department of National Defense (P3.087 billion) and the Office of the President Rodrigo Duterte (P2.41 billion).

Rounding up the list of top 10 biggest spenders of CIF funds were the following:

• Department of Interior and Local Government - P1.794 billion
• Other Executive Offices - P752.7 million
• Department of Information and Communications Technology - P307 million
• Department of Justice - P279 million
• The Judiciary - P268 million
• Department of Finance - P90 million and
• Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao - P82.674 million

The top three spenders accounted for 70.4% of the P13.4 billion worth of CIF fund disbursed.

The rest of the agencies outside the top 10 highest CIF spenders only accounted for P411.6 million or 3.06% of the P13.4 billion spent.

The Office of Vice President Leni Robredo was the lowest spender with P547,000.

In distant second place is the Presidential Communications Operations Office with P2.9 million spent.

The rest of the agencies with the least CIF spent are:

• Department of Energy - P3.56 million
• Commission on Elections - P4.6 million
• Civil Service Commission - P4.9 million
• Department of Tourism - P5.1 million
• Department of Public Works and Highways - P5.3 million
• Department of Budget and Management - P6.6 million
• Department of Agrarian Reform - P7.27 million and
• Department of Science and Technology - P7.35 million

The 2019 COA AFR was submitted to the Office of the President, the Senate President, the Senate Committee on Finance, the Office of the Speaker, and the House Committee on Appropriations on December 15, 2020. — BM, GMA News