COA mulls special audit on NTF-ELCAC fund

The Commission on Audit (COA) is looking into the need to conduct a special audit on the budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), sourced from the respective appropriations of the agencies attached to it.

COA chairman Michael Aguinaldo made the remark on Wednesday during the House panel deliberations on the proposed 2021 budget of the commission.

During the briefing, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate asked Aguinaldo if COA would conduct a special audit on the NTF-ELCAC's budget, noting that there were funds funneled through the task force in the previous years that he said were difficult to find in budget books.

"We're looking into it kung kailangan ng special audit," Aguinaldo said.

According to Aguinaldo, the initial funding of the NTF-ELCAC would come from the budget of the different agencies involved in the program.

He said it might be difficult to look for these funds as they have to check first where the task force sourced its funding and if they actually spent it.

"Mag-uumpisa yan with the agencies involved kasi since its their funds, kasama sa audit yun, makikita dapat yun. Now, how they actually expended it, we have to look at the disbursement voucher, saan pinasok, what the agency attributes to that program. So yun ang titignan," Aguinaldo explained.

"Once ma-trace nila, malalaman natin if we'll need to do a special audit particularly on those expenditures, or if yung audit done by the different audit agencies will be sufficient. That's something we still have to determine," he added.

Created through Executive Order 70 issued by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018, the NTF-ELCAC is aimed at ending the "local armed communist conflict" in the country.

The task force is headed by the President with the National Security Adviser as vice chairperson.

Its members include secretaries of the departments of interior and local government; justice; national defense; public works and highways; budget and management; finance; agrarian reform; social welfare and development; education; and communications.

Aguinaldo said that while it is not unusual for President to issue an executive order creating a task force involving several Cabinet members, and whose expenses are charged from the budgets of the departments, the NTF-ELCAC's budget is "quite big."

"So medyo it's something that we have to look at carefully kasi nga the amount of money involved is not typical, you have this task force involving different departments. Those are issues that will really be looked at," he said.

ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro earlier questioned the proposed P16-billion barangay development program for communities "cleared" of insurgency under the NTF-ELCAC's proposed P19.13-billion budget for 2021.

Castro pointed out that the huge allocation might be used as "pork barrel" for the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Malacañang defended the proposed budget of the task force, saying that it is a “valid expenditure.”—LDF, GMA News