PCGG's overseas cell phone expenses questioned

MANILA, Philippines – State auditors are questioning the overseas cellular telephone expenses worth more than P170,000 incurred by officials of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

The Commission on Audit asked the PCGG’s Accounting Division to submit proof of the foreign travels of the agency’s officials during the periods that correspond to the cell phone bills incurred by the officials when they were allegedly abroad.

“Mobile telephone expenses totaling P174,332.25 were incurred by commissioners and directors (of the PCGG) while on travels abroad without proof of official travel to validate the claims,” a COA report on the 2008 operations of the PCGG stated.

The COA report, however, did not identify the concerned PCGG officials.

State auditors said their verification of the mobile telephone expenses of the agency revealed that “various calls and text messages were incurred by various PCGG officials” from the United States, Singapore and South Korea.

“The total of P174,332.25 were paid to Smart Communications Inc. as shown in the monthly billing of the service provider,” the COA report stated.

State auditors said that a review of the agency’s disbursements showed that documents like plane tickets, boarding passes, mission orders and approved itinerary of travel were not attached or submitted to support the foreign travels of the PCGG executives.

COA said the agency could not determine whether the travels abroad were official in nature or in line with the PCGG officials’ duties.

In response to the comments of the COA, the PCGG said that they could only give a certification of official travel, noting that the mission order for such travel includes information considered as “highly confidential.”

The PCGG said the disclosure of such information on the foreign travels “may be prejudicial to their recovery efforts abroad.”

“The (PCGG) management commented that in view of the length of time that has elapsed since PCGG officials have gone on travel, submission of all documents enumerated would be difficult if not impracticable. Such documents not having been required by the PNB in liquidation reports have either been misplaced or lost,” the COA report stated, referring to the response of the PCGG.