Special audit to be made on Comelec expenses

The Commission on Audit (COA) will conduct a special audit of Commission on Elections (Comelec) expenses after four commissioners of the poll body reported that Chairman Alfredo Benipayo had gone on two foreign trips without the proper travel authority.

Benipayo will be asked to explain why he failed to seek the proper clearance from the commission en banc before leaving for official business abroad, where he and two other officials spent some P2.54 million in Comelec funds.

On their trips, the Comelec officials accompanied a group of legislators for the pending Absentee Voting bill for overseas Filipinos.

However, the complainants claimed Benipayo had traveled without a formal invitation from the lawmakers and that, departing from the official itinerary, Benipayo’s travels included an eight-day side trip to London to visit one of his children there.

In a letter sent to COA resident auditor at the Comelec Antonio Magsanay last May 28, Commissioners Rufino Javier, Ralph Lantion, Mehol Sadain, and Luzviminda Tancangco revealed that Benipayo and Commissioner Florentino Tuason Jr. broke government rules by failing to secure the proper travel authorities from the commission en banc before they left.

The four commissioners said Benipayo and Tuason broke the rules under the Government Accounting and Auditing Manual (GAAM) for all officials to secure the requisite travel authority from the en banc before going abroad.

Under the GAAM, officials leaving for foreign travels should support their cash advances with an authority to travel, travel itinerary, and authority from the Office of the President for representation allowance.

The complainants pointed out that if expenses for these are disallowed by COA, then Benipayo and the two other Comelec officials accompanying him would be liable for having illegally spent P2.54 million, of which P1.285 million was spent by Comelec chief.

"It is a known fact, and the records will bear out that no travel authority from the commission en banc was secured for the foregoing trips, hence, making them, in plain and simple language, unauthorized, and the cash advances granted in connection with this trip unlawful," they said in the letter to Magsanay.

The four commissioners attached seven en banc resolutions that showed that Comelec officials have always sought proper approval before being allowed to leave for abroad on official trips. These included en banc resolutions granting permission to former Comelec Chairman Christian Monsod and former Commissioners Regalado Maambong, Manolo Gorospe and Teresita Flores.

"The foregoing resolutions of the commission en banc are just a few of the authorities to travel granted to Comelec officials who went on foreign trips, and amply proves that it is the en banc that grants authority to travel to all officials of the Comelec," the four commissioners said.

The majority commissioners requested the COA to audit the cash advances for the Benipayo group’s unauthorized travel "and to disallow them in audit if warranted by existing auditing rules and regulations."

The attached Comelec records show that Benipayo, his executive assistant James Jimenez, and Tuason went to Hong Kong and Japan from Feb. 20 to 27, spending P855,013.35 in Comelec funds. They also went to Rome, Italy and to New York City and Los Angeles in the US from March 19 to April 7, costing P1.693 million.