COA questions ex-Palace official's P566,300 unliquidated cash advances

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) has called the attention of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCCO) to unliquidated cash advances of a former Palace media official during the Arroyo administration.

In a report, state auditors said the former undersecretary has yet to account for P566,300 cash advance made last year for one of then President Gloria Arroyo’s super regions tours with the media.

Records show that the unnamed former official of the PCCO, then called the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS), was granted the cash advance on March 11, 2010.

The COA report also mentioned another Palace media official in the Arroyo administration with an unliquidated cash advance of P150,000. But the former assistant secretary who used the money for a “Special Media Operation in Malacañang sa SUGBO” on Jan. 20, 2010 was already able to liquidate the cash advance on April 17.

“Management justified that they have been constantly reminding these officers of their unliquidated cash advances thru demand letters,” the COA report read.

The former Palace media official, in letters dated June 28, 2010 and Oct. 25, 2010, claimed “he already submitted his liquidation report to the Office of the President.”

Both officials have not yet been given clearance or their terminal pay.

“We recommended and management agreed to pursue demanding the liquidation documents (from both officials),” state auditors said.

They reminded the officials that Section 4.1 of COA Circular 97-002 dated Feb. 10, 1997 provides that cash advance shall be liquidated as soon as the purpose for which it was granted has been served.

Last week, state auditors also came out with a report that an unnamed Media Accreditation and Relations Officer of Malacañang’s News and Information Bureau (NIB) had admitted her failure to liquidate over P1.2 million in cash advances as of Dec. 31 last year because she was “busy.”

The money was supposedly used for local travel purposes and expenses for a Special Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting (SNAMM) held on March 16-18, 2010, also during the Arroyo administration.