CoA: Complete Nabcor, ZNAC abolition
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2019 06:58:39 +0000
The Commission on Audit has ordered the completion of paperwork for the swift and full abolition of two graft-ridden State-owned firms that then President Benigno S. Aquino III ordered dissolved five years ago for involvement in the P10-billion “pork barrel” fund scam.
In separate 2018 annual audit reports that were released recently, CoA said the designated Transition Management Committees and the Technical Working Group assigned to the National Agribusiness Corp. and ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp. should fasttrack the remaining paper work for the complete dissolution of the two State-run agribusiness corporations.
The former Nabcor management is liable to audit disallowances totaling P406.255 million which became final and executory but have not been recorded in the firm’s books.
On the other hand, State auditors said that as of Dec. 31, 2018, the former ZREC management incurred a total unsettled audit disallowances amounted to P252.6 million.
Additional P9.688 million in disallowances issued after an audit review have remained unrecorded.
Aquino ordered the abolition of Nabcor in 2014 and ZREC in 2013 after the two firms were found to have been used by corrupt lawmakers as conduits in defrauding government of an estimated P10 billion in pork barrel allocations.
The scam has been blamed on detained businesswoman Janet L. Napoles, as the alleged mastermind, and former and current members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Under the presidential directive, the firms’ assets, liabilities, and surplus were also supposed to be transferred to the Department of Agriculture.
“The closure of the books of Nabcor is yet to be undertaken and the assets, liabilities, and surplus were not yet transferred to DA,” the audit report stated. (Ben Rosario)