OP operating expenditures drop to P12.3 billion
Credit to Author: Jose Rodel Clapano| Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the President (OP) scaled back on expenses during President Marcos’ first full year in office in 2023, having spent 43.4 percent less than its spending in 2022, according to the Commission on Audit.
COA’s audit report released on Dec. 1 showed that the OP’s maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) in 2023 were at P12.313 billion from P21.768 billion in 2022.
Its expenses for the salaries, bonuses and benefits of all Malacañang personnel also decreased to P1.372 billion from P1.409 billion in 2022.
Expenses for donations or the fund releases from the OP’s Socio-Civic Projects Fund saw the biggest decrease from P15.568 billion in 2022 to P5.408 billion in 2023 or a P10.16-billion reduction.
“The significant decrease in this account is due to the lesser financial assistance granted in 2023, considering that some assistance granted in 2022 are still subject to liquidation before a new assistance may be granted,” the OP said.
Malacañang’s professional services or the legal, consultancy and technical or skilled hires fell to P35 million from P54.25 million.
Repairs and maintenance which cover the OP’s transport fleet, equipment and standing structures also fell from P86.18 million to P34.38 million.
While Marcos’ local travel expenses were scaled down, his foreign travel expenses soared to P751.52 million in 2023 from P396.27 million in 2022.
Representation expenses also climbed from P698.77 million to P999.94 million over the same period.
“Increase in this account is due to the increase in the number of official functions, meetings and other presidential events during the year,” the OP explained.
While the OP spent the lion’s share of the government’s total funding for confidential and intelligence funds (CIFs), confidential expenses for the past two years remained the same at P2.25 billion, while intelligence fund spending showed a slight increase from P2.25 billion to P2.31 billion.
“Intelligence expenses is used to recognize the amount paid for expenses related to intelligence information gathering activities of uniformed and military personnel and intelligence practitioners that have direct impact to national security,” the OP explained.
The House committee on good government and public accountability yesterday filed House Bill No. 11193 which seeks to regulate government special disbursing officers (SDOs) and impose stiffer penalties for the misuse of CIFs with sanction on misappropriation of the money.
The proposed laws were the product of the committee’s exhaustive inquiry into the alleged misuse of P612.5 million in CIFs received by the Office of Vice President under Sara Duterte and the Department of Education when she was still education secretary.
The penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office, including loss of benefits, shall be imposed on any offender, without prejudice to the filing of criminal, civil and administrative cases.
In their explanatory note, the authors said SDOs, who are appointed by agency heads “based on trust and confidence,” are authorized to disburse funds through cash advances.
“Without a law to protect funds handled by SDOs, the gaps in the guidelines (on cash advances) made it susceptible for agency heads and disbursing officers to abuse fund disbursement by the millions and billions without proper liquidation with impunity,” they said.
The authors said such abuses were evident in the course of the inquiry of the committee on good government and public accountability.
The proposed “Special Disbursing Officers Accountability Act” defines SDO as “a regular employee designated as such by the HOA (head of agency), to be in charge of making disbursement of the amount received.”
The SDO shall be a permanent official or employee of the agency of at least Salary Grade 24, and shall possess an educational background related to accounting, auditing or finance.
The SDO shall comply with the rules and regulations on the entitlement, release, use, reporting and audit of regular funds and CIF and shall not make further delegation of disbursing the funds to which he/she is accountable.
In the case of CIFs, the SDO shall certify that the funds have been used in relation to the mandate of the agency directly related to national security, peace and order or intelligence gathering for the effective implementation of its law enforcement mandate.
Activities related to national security and peace and order include purchase of information necessary for the formulation and implementation of program, activities and projects relevant to the national security and peace and order, payment of rewards, aid and/or capability development for personnel of law enforcement agencies and volunteers/partners and other activities, crime prevention and law enforcement activities and programs for anti-illegal drug, illegal gambling, counter-insurgency and/or counterterrorism, illegal logging, illegal mining, illegal fishing, smuggling and human trafficking.