COA flags OSG travel expenses in 2018.
OSG TRAVEL EXPENSES – The Commission on Audit (COA) identified the travel expenses of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) for 2018.
In the annual audit report, auditors flagged and called out the travels and airplane tickets of the OSG worth more than Php 7 million which were purchased without documents to support it.
According to a report from Rappler, the COA, on their website, indicated over the 2018 audit report of the OSG, “Airplane tickets for foreign travel amounting to P7,128,374.84 were not supported by complete documents like three quotations of travel agencies or its equivalent among others, contrary to Section 4 of PD No. 1445, The State Audit Code of the Philippines and Section 1.1.4.2 of COA Circular 2012-001.”
Under COA Circular 2012-001, these purchases should be supported with full and complete documents, such quotations from three travel agencies.
Moreover, “However, audit of the disbursement vouchers (DVs) and its supporting document revealed that foreign travel amounting to P7,128,374.84 (Annex C) lacked the three quotations while some purchases were not supported by abstract of quotations.”
Also, COA have observed that there were no attached price quotations in the reimbursements.
Meanwhile, based on a previous report, Solicitor General Jose Calida is among the top highest paid government officials. Last 2017, his annual salary was only Php 1.83 million but allegedly received an “excess” allowance of Php 8.37 million.
In 2017, he was even named as a ghost employee for allegedly obtaining a full salary despite failure to submit his Daily Time Record or DTR. As much as anyone is probably aware of, he was assigned by the President Duterte himself to be on that position after he took office last July 2016.
What can you say about this?
For more news and updates, follow us on Twitter: @philnews_ph and Facebook: @PhilNews
