MANILA - The Commission on Audit (COA) issued nearly 300 notices of disallowances covering more than P5 billion in government disbursements from January to December 2021, an official of the agency said Friday.

“What we can provide as we have submitted would be the summary of COA decisions specifically on notices of disallowances for January 1, 2021- December 31, 2021. For the notice of disallowances a total of 299 COA decisions amounting to P5.285 billion. As to percentage in relation to the budget we don’t have the exact figure as of now.” COA OIC Commissioner Roland Cafe Pondoc said during the agency’s budget briefing at the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations.

“As to the notice of disallowance on a specific agency, we cannot provide that as of now, but we can say sa national government na mga agencies, we have about 42 agencies with notices of disallowances ... and the total is about, 4,126 notices of disallowance including all other audits,” Pondoc added.

He said the figure covers disallowances covering COA's regular audit, as well as special audit and fraud audit.

“We do not have only the financial or compliance audit but we also have the fraud audit and special audit wherein those offices would also issue notices of disallowance so a total 4,126, but we cannot identify kung ano 'yung agency 'yung pinakamaram,.” Pondoc said.

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Separately, a COA slide presentation during the briefing showed that from January 1 to June 30, 2022, 746 notices of disallowance covering over P2 billion were issued.

Notices of disallowances are subject to review by the full commission proper, whose decisions may be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

“'Yung from sa sinabi niyong AOM (audit observation memorandum) it may result to notice of disallowance or notice of charge. And then 'yung notice of disallowance na 'yun eh aabot 'yan hanggang sa commission. Proper for us to decide first whether dapat ba bayaran or isauli or i-lift,” Pondoc said.

Under COA rules, a disallowance refers to the disapproval of an audit of a transaction, either in whole or in part. It applies to the audit of disbursements as distinguished from “charge” which applies to the audit of revenues or receipts.

Pondoc led the commission during the budget briefing as chairman Jose Calida is on medical leave.

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, meanwhile, asked for a consolidated audit of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) funds, including the funds of the Barangay Development Program.

Castro’s Makabayan bloc has accused the task force of red-tagging them and other government critics.

COA assistant commissioner Martha Roxana Sese said the data is not yet available.

“The NTF-ELCAC was audited on an agency basis depending on where the fund was given so we have DSWD for example, TESDA. The consolidation will be done when the AFR, when the report, annual financial report I mean comes out nandoon na po,” Sese said.

“Pero right now it has been published na po 'yung mga individual annual audit reports andoon po siya sa mga reports na yun,” she added.

At Castro’s request, Sese said they will consolidate the audit.

Pondoc said the current administration cut the agency’s budget in 2023, reducing the number of plantilla positions they could hire next year. Pondoc said they were only allowed to hire 13,284 instead of 14,102 staff.

“Sana ibalik ho yung prinopropose namin na budget,” he said.

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The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department said that the total available appropriations for COA in 2023 amounts to P13.81 billion, of which P13.17 billion (95.3%) is for new appropriations while P645.2 million is automatic appropriations.

“Compared to the current year’s level (P13.99 billion), the proposed new appropriations is lower by P823.4 million or 5.9%,” the CPBRD noted.

It noted that at least 96% of the operations budget in 2021-2023 goes to the Government Auditing Program.

The P5.9 billion allocation for this program in 2023 will be distributed to five (5) sub-programs, namely Local Government Auditing (P3.32 billion), National Government Auditing (P1.78 billion), Corporate Government Auditing (P574.7 million), Special Audit (P190.7 million), and Technical Services and Systems Audit (P35.3 million).

On the other hand, the budget for Government Financial Adjudication Program will increase by almost 40%--from P117.5 million to P163.9 million in 2023 while the Government Accountancy Program will increase by 20.2%--from P54.4 million to P65.5 million.