MANILA — The House of Representatives had clean audits in recent years — including the years that Rodrigo Duterte was president — the latest report from the Commission on Audit (COA) showed.

“For [Calendar Year] 2022 and prior years, no Notice of Suspension, Notice of Disallowance, and Notice of Charge was issued,” state auditors said in their latest report.

COA issues a notice of suspension when the transaction has issues on compliance with requirements, “which may result in pecuniary loss to the government.”

A notice of disallowance, meanwhile, means use of public funds was illegal.

COA issues a notice of charge when revenues for the government were deemed uncollected or not computed properly.

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Some reminders from auditors

The latest COA report, however, reminded the lower chamber to reconcile its subsidiary ledgers and with negative/debit balances in the inter-agency payables account.

State auditors also told the House to be on time in submitting its Budget and Financial Accountability Reports to the agency as to not delay the review and examination of financial instructions.

Duterte urges audit of House

Former President Duterte earlier alleged irregularities in House spending and criticized the chamber's Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses.

Duterte, who had been critical of COA and its release of audit reports while he was president, also urged auditors to look into these expenses.

But House Secretary General Reginald Velasco told the former Philippine leader it has not been flagged by state auditors for any funds misuse.

Velasco also released a COA certification for the quarter ending September 30, 2023 which showed that the House has zero suspensions, charges and disallowances.

In 2019, the COA said Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses might include spending on various activities like meetings, seminars and conferences; office equipment and supplies; public relations; educational, athletic and cultural activities — which were necessary for an operations.

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The agency added that this might also include subscriptions to resources like technical journals, magazines and books "and other similar expenses not supported by the regular budget allocation."

The House has proposed P1.6 billion in Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses for the 2024 budget.

Part of the funding is for "emergency situations" or for financial aid to constituents in crisis or after natural calamities.

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