COA says 181 of its paintings missing

The Commission on Audit (COA) said it has discovered that at least 181 paintings it owns are missing.

In its 2019 Annual Audit Report (AAR), state auditors said that COA’s reconciliation of its inventory report with the accounting records of the artworks revealed that 353 paintings are on the list even if only 172 pieces were recorded on Report on Physical Count of Property, Plant and Equipment.

Of the 353 paintings in total, 297 were in the list while 56 paintings were recorded in accounting books but not recorded in the list.

“Given the above data, the total number of COA paintings increased to 353 paintings. With the increase in the number of paintings to be recognized in the books, the variance between the accounting and the property records increased to 181 paintings,” COA said.

“The Management failed to perform the necessary actions to recover missing valuable paintings of the Commission, as shown by discrepancy of 181 between the Accounting and Property records of 353 and 172, respectively as evidenced by unverified physical existence of 181 paintings thus, resulting in a possible significant loss of government assets,” COA added.

In addition, 111 out of the 297 paintings included in the list could not be found in the accounting books.

Likewise, state auditors noted that there was no movement in the Property, Plant and Equipment for paintings in the physical inventory in 2019.

“This shows that there was a lack of effort on the part of Management to reconcile the variances and locate the unaccounted paintings previously noted and included in the 2016 audit report,” COA said.

State auditors recommended that COA require its Administration sector to take the following actions:

-create a team to handle the complete inventory of the COA paintings and to locate the missing 181 paintings
-conduct an investigation on the causes of the missing paintings
-initiate the filing of appropriate charges against those persons found negligent or at fault in the handling or safekeeping of the missing paintings provided there is evidence
-determine the current condition of the paintings to come up with the price consistent with current market value for valuation purposes.

In response, COA said that its Accounting Office will reconcile its records and create a team to handle the complete inventory of the COA paintings.—LDF, GMA News