MANILA - The Commission on Audit has flagged unliquidated cash advances granted to officers and employees of the Office of the President amounting to P6.426 million and unutilized cash advances due for refund amounting to P447,275.

In the 2017 annual audit report on the OP headed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, government auditors noted that there were no demand letters issued by the OP's chief accountant to compel accountable officers to refund their unliquidated balances.

The OP said the country's hosting of the ASEAN Summit partly contributed to the office's liquidation problems.

“Management also commented that this was due to the voluminous transactions due to the hosting of the ASEAN (Summit) in 2017,” the COA said.

The audit agency also noted in the report that the expenses incurred for 2017 and 2016 under the OP's Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) “were due to the Philippine hosting of the ASEAN 2017.”

Consultancy services went up to a whopping P3.092 billion in 2017 from just P19.317 million in 2016, expenses on supplies and materials went up to P114.131 million in 2017 from P72.932 million in 2016, and communications expenses to P24.015 million from P15.658 million.

Also included in the MOOE are expenditures under “Confidential, Intelligence and Extraordinary Expenses” for 2017 amounting to P2.515 billion, up from just P715.356 million in 2016.

The report did not touch on the increase in the OP's intelligence budget, which the President had asked for in his continued campaign against illegal drugs.

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“Confidential expenses” and “intelligence expenses” each amounted to P1.277 billion while “extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses” amounted to P10.042 million.

The COA also said the OP overstated its books on transportation equipment after finding out that P51.525 million worth of spare parts and materials were unused in aircraft used by the President.

The COA said the OP incurred P188.104 million in repairs and maintenance costs for the President's transportation, 94 percent of which was used for maintenance work at the Presidential Airlift Wing's (PAW) helicopter fleet.

“We conducted inspection at the PAW warehouse and found out that there were uninstalled/unused aircraft spare parts and materials with a total cost of P51,525,833.54,” the COA said.

It, however, appeared in the report that the spare parts left unused and kept in stock were not yet needed.

The COA noted that the OP agreed to their recommendations such as requiring its chief accountant to recognize in the books of accounts the cost of spare parts as an “inventory item” and charge to expense the cost only of installed or used spare parts.