COA clarifies close to P4-B spending of Congress in 2019 not for intel but miscellaneous expenses

The Commission on Audit on Wednesday clarified that Congress of the Philippines had no confidential, intelligence, and extraordinary funds incurred for the year 2019.

In a statement, COA said while appearing under the sub-major account category “Confidential, Intelligence and Extraordinary Expenses” prescribed under the Revised Chart of Accounts for National Government Agencies, the P3.98 billion entry referred to the item “Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses.”

“The (Annual Financial Report) AFR clearly shows that the Congress of the Philippines did not incur any Confidential or Intelligence expenses in 2019,” COA said.

COA said the extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses as provided under Section 47 of the General Provisions of the FY 2019 General Appropriations Act include, but are not limited to, expenses incurred for various activities such as meetings, seminars and conferences; office equipment and supplies; public relations; educational, athletic and cultural activities; subscription to professional, technical journals and informative magazines, library book and materials; and other similar expenses not supported by the regular budget allocation.

“The sub-major account category Confidential, Intelligence and Extraordinary Expenses refer to three general ledger accounts: confidential expenses (related to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies), intelligence expenses (related to intelligence information gathering activities of uniformed, military personnel and intelligence practitioners), and extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses (incidental to the performance of official functions),” it said.

Earlier, it was reported that 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.

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.—Ma. Angelica Garcia/LDF, GMA News