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COA questions allowances of OGCC lawyers, expensive planning seminar

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Adrian Ayalin, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged as excessive allowances of 5 lawyers at the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) last year. In its 2017 audit report, the COA said the allowances exceeded the 50-percent limit based on the lawyers&#x27; annual basic salary, violating a 1985 COA circular.The OGCC, an agency attached to the Department of Justice (DOJ), provides legal services to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).“Allowances received by the OGCC lawyers for legal services rendered to various client government corporations for 2017 exceeded the 50-percent limitation based on their annual basic salary amounting to P621,717.72, which is contrary to COA Circular No. 85-25-E dated April 25, 1985,” the COA said.The OGCC was headed by Rudolf Philip Jurado, who President Rodrigo Duterte fired Monday night for supposedly abusing his authority in connection with the granting of a permit to a casino operator. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/28/18/duterte-fires-ogcc-chief-over-casino-permit">Duterte fires OGCC chief over casino permit</a></li></ul>Jurado has accepted his dismissal but denied any irregularity involving his legal opinion on casino operations within the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone.The casino issue cropped up after OGCC lawyers went public on DZMM radio against Jurado, who was appointed to the post on April 18, 2017.In a letter Jurado then sent to DZMM, he said that on May 11, 2018, he was the one who was “constrained to serve, inform and direct their client GOCCs to cease/refrain from further giving these allowances secretly to GOCC laywers,” in reference to the COA audit on the lawyers&#x27; allowances.In the audit report, the COA mentioned names of five lawyers who supposedly received excessive allowances: Elpidio Vega, with an excess of P300,982; Medardo Devera, P96,322; Manuel Santos, P119,362; Efren Gonzales, P82,598; and Aniceto Calubaquib, P22,452.But the OGCC, in an official reply to the COA upon receipt of the memorandum, said that the audit agency&#x27;s circular was “misapplied” to its lawyers.The OGCC justified the allowances through an executive order dated March 4, 1983 which supposedly authorizes lawyers assigned to perform special tasks “to receive such additional compensation and privileges” and “does not provide for a limit on the amount of honoraria that OGCC lawyers may receive.”The OGCC also said that laws on the national prosecution services as well as a Department of Justice memorandum circular in 2011 allowed OGCC lawyers to receive allowances “not exceeding 100 percent of their basic salary.&quot;But the COA insists that the OGCC must strictly comply with the COA circular which sets a 50-percent ceiling on allowances as well as the refund of the excess amount received by the lawyers.The COA also reminded the OGCC to remit the P2.8-million balance of the agency&#x27;s special assessments and allowances from 2016.“This is a follow-up finding to the 2016 observations since the agency has not fully remitted the remaining balance of P2,806,315.29 to the Bureau of Treasury,” the COA said.The audit agency also questioned the OGCC&#x27;s team building and corporate planning session at Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan from April 20 to 22, 2017 where it spent P622,950, supposedly inconsistent with the Government Procurement Act.Under the law, government agencies must first look at public venues in planning for an event before considering a private location. “It bears stressing that under Lease of Real Property and Venue, preference should be publicly-owned real property or venue. In the instant case, management did not consider leasing first from publicly-owned real property before considering the privately-owned real estate property which [is] obviously more economical and beneficial to the government,” the COA said.

MANILA - The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged as excessive allowances of 5 lawyers at the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) last year.

MANILA - The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged as excessive allowances of 5 lawyers at the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) last year.

COA questions allowances of OGCC lawyers, expensive planning seminar

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COA questions allowances of OGCC lawyers, expensive planning seminar

Adrian Ayalin,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 29, 2018 01:03 PM PHT

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COA

Commission on Audit

Office of the Government Corporate Counsel

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