Gatchalian seeks probe of COA auditor over flood control mess

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct an internal investigation of its resident auditor for possible involvement in anomalous flood control projects.

Speaking at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, Gatchalian said there was "very obvious tampering of supporting documents" submitted to COA, leading him to question whether the resident auditor was involved.

"What we want is pati 'yung COA resident auditor ay maimbestigahan rin. Kasi kung hindi mawawalan ho kami ng kumpiyansa sa COA," he said.

(What we want is for the COA resident auditor to also be investigated. Because if not, then we will lose confidence in the COA.)

Citing Senator Panfilo Lacson's privilege speech, Gatchalian raised a case where a project was marked 46% completed just two days after being given a notice to proceed. He said that after 86 days, it was marked 89% completed.

Gatchalian said another project, particularly the construction of a river bank along Pampanga River, was marked 89% completed after 15 days and fully completed after 34 days.

The senator questioned why this was only discovered after two years.

"Bakit hindi niya ho na-detect? Kasi obvious… 'yung mga pictures na sina-submit as evidence of completion pare-pareho. Ito ho hindi naman kailangan ng ubod nang talino para makita ito. Dapat lang ho masinop," he said.

(Why didn't she detect it? Because it's obvious… The pictures submitted as evidence of completion are all the same. This doesn't require great intelligence to see. It only requires diligence.)

Fraud audit

For her part, COA supervising auditor Tracy Ann Sunico said the commission disallowed transactions of the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office (DEO) as not all transactions were submitted.

Sunico also said this is what led to the fraud audit.

Gatchalian pointed out that the fraud audit only took place recently.

Meanwhile, Sunico cited the COA's lack of manpower.

"Isa lang po 'yung—, meron po tayong audit team leader at isa lang din po 'yung kanyang audit team member. Aside po sa Bulacan 1st DEO, on which case, from 2022 na nasa, more or less, nasa 120 or 140 po 'yung flood control projects po nila, lumobo po siya by 2023 and 2024 by double po," she said.

(There's only one—, we have an audit team leader who only has one audit team member. Aside from the Bulacan 1st DEO, in which case, from 2022, there were more or less around 120 or 140 flood control projects, it doubled by 2023 and 2024.)

She said that during the budget deliberations for 2023, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) lowered plantilla positions by 100 employees in Bulacan.

However, Gatchalian did not find the lack of manpower as a sufficient reason.

Senator Erwin Tulfo, meanwhile, asked Bulacan 1st district assistant engineer Brice Hernandez if he knew the resident auditor, which he affirmed.

Tulfo then asked Hernandez if  the auditor knew about the ghost and substandard projects.

"Sa pagkakaalam ko po (As far as I know)," Hernandez answered.

However, dismissed Bulacan first district engineer Henry Alcantara has said he thinks that the auditor does not have any knowledge of the ghost projects.

"Because they're relying on the documents po. Hindi po sa actual field po talaga. In fairness po kay auditor," he said. — VDV, GMA Integrated News