'PASG has P28.2-M unliquidated cash advances'

MANILA, Philippines - Officials and employees of the defunct Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) created by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in May 2007 have more than P28.250 million in unliquidated cash advances to account for.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said Malacañang, through Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., should require officials of the abolished agency led by former secretary Antonio Villar Jr. to settle their obligations.

In a 2010 report, state auditors said the PASG, after ceasing operations on June 30 last year, left unliquidated cash advances in the total amount of P28,250,855.33.

If officials and employees fail to account for the funds, COA recommended the filing of civil and or criminal actions against those responsible.

The audit report stressed that under Circular No. 97-002, all cash advances should be “fully liquidated at the end of each year.”

“Failure of the accountable officer to liquidate his cash advance within the prescribed period shall constitute a valid cause for the withholding of his salary and the institution of other sanctions,” the rules state.

“The agency officials did not submit the schedule of outstanding cash advances, hence we cannot determine the names of accountable officers with outstanding cash advances,” the COA report said of the PASG’s case.

The agency was created through Executive Order 624 four years ago to “curtail smuggling, unlawful importation and other similar acts,” but was officially abolished by Executive Order 18 issued by President Aquino on Dec. 9, 2010.

PASG was told to wind up operations, close its books of accounts and dispose and or turn over its assets and liabilities to proper officials not later than Dec. 31, 2010, but it was not completed on the prescribed date because all personnel were terminated as early as June 30, 2010.

PASG was abolished for allegedly being an agency merely duplicating the job of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and other government agencies.