COA hits DOJ’s alleged misuse of Victims Compensation Fund

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) has called the attention of the Department of Justice (DOJ) over last year’s alleged misuse of government money from its Victims Compensation Fund (VCF).

In a report, state auditors said P.5 million of the fund was spent for the salaries and honoraria of Board of Claims (BOC) personnel, purchase of a computer, purchase of office supplies and other purposes the fund was not intended for.

“As seen in the above table, the fund is being utilized for salaries of BOC contractual employees, honoraria of those involved in the implementation of Victims Compensation Program, supplies, miscellaneous expenses and etc. and not for the purpose of the program, which is for the compensation of the victims of violent crimes,” the audit team’s findings read.

COA said “management has no reason to maintain/hold the collections or to use it for other purposes, considering that the allotment received by the DOJ for the BOC Services has still an unexpended balance of P3,744,346.00 as of the year-end.”

The report stated that the DOJ should remit the existing balance of the VCF amounting to P73.4 million to the National Treasury.