Vice President Sara Duterte arrives at a Quezon City court. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
MANILA — Vice President Sara Duterte’s office said Friday that “all funds are accounted for” after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged supposed deficiencies in its relief operations involving some P167.97 million.
The Office of the Vice President clarified that the audit report “pertains to deficiencies in certain pre-operation documentary requirements set by the OVP itself as part of its internal procedures” and not requirements imposed by any law or COA regulation.
COA flags P168-M deficiency in OVP relief operations
“The discrepancies arose from changes in circumstances and field conditions that became apparent as the operations were carried out,” the OVP said.
“No funds were lost, and all funds are accounted for,” it said.
It added that the relief operations “were actually carried out, and the beneficiaries were recorded and validated based on the available supporting documents and field records submitted to the COA Audit Team.”
In its report, the COA said control and documentation deficiencies included inconsistencies between situational reports from the OVP and agencies or local government units concerned; deviations from approved mission orders during actual operations; issuance of open-ended mission orders; deficiencies in beneficiary documentation and distribution records; and incomplete, missing, or non-submission of required documents.
“Although [the OVP] management attributed these to evolving disaster conditions and subsequent validation, supporting documents for the revisions were not consistently attached. Consequently, the reliability of the SitReps (situational reports) used as basis for planning relief operations and issuing Mission Orders was diminished,” state auditors said.
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Duterte’s office said it “continues to strengthen its processes for documentation, validation, and monitoring to ensure that the records of every operation are complete and in order, especially during emergency responses and calamities.”
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