Cayetano insists on ‘people’s audit’

MANILA, Philippines - There’s a difference between “case closed” and “case resolved,” according to Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano as he sought yesterday a parallel “people’s audit” of the chamber’s funds.

“If they will make the documents available to the public and the media, that’s the kind of audit I am asking for. This isn’t an issue of bickering of senators. This is a tool of accountability and transparency,” Cayetano said as he urged his colleagues to “lead by example.”

Cayetano filed a resolution yesterday for a people’s audit, or a joint or parallel audit of the Senate’s P2-billion appropriation in 2012 by an independent, private firm alongside the Commission on Audit (COA).

The resolution was filed a day after senators agreed in a two-hour caucus to end their system of liquidating their funds through mere certification and submit to COA auditing.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the chamber’s accounts committee, said he and his colleagues are ready to turn over to the COA today documents pertaining to the use of their maintenance, operating and other expenses (MOOE).

Cayetano wants to know how much of the Senate’s appropriation last year was liquidated by mere certification. He expressed optimism that his colleagues are now open to implementing reforms.

“The Senate could not now claim to credibly investigate other offices and individuals when it is perceived to be less transparent and accountable within its ranks with regard to how it allocates, disburses and liquidates the MOOE and other funds,” Cayetano said.

In his resolution, he pointed out that the government has an obligation, committed under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, to develop, implement and maintain effective anti-corruption policies.

COA chief Grace Pulido-Tan sent a letter to the Senate last Monday, directing Lacson to “make available” to state auditors at the soonest possible time all papers, documents and information in his possession as head of the accounts committee, particularly those concerning the augmentation and realignment of Senate funds.

The COA also sought details on the use of MOOE by each senator so that “we can carry out a no-holds barred audit of the Senate finances.”

She pointed out that the COA has a constitutional mandate to look into the funds of government agencies.

Senators had pointed to Concurrent Resolution No. 10, filed by Lacson on Aug. 22, 2011 and adopted by the chamber two days later, to prevent state auditors from scrutinizing Senate finances. The resolution, adopted by the House of Representatives in February 2012, perpetuated the system of fund liquidation through certification.

The resolution was in response to COA requests since 2010 to conduct an audit of congressional funds.

Tan will meet today with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to thresh out details in the COA’s scrutiny of legislative funds.

Criticism of Enrile’s discretionary authority over Senate savings, which his office distributed to senators as additional MOOE in the final days of 2012, triggered the current controversy.

JPE: No need for ceasefire

Some senators have called for a ceasefire among their feuding colleagues, but Enrile said yesterday there was no need for this since he had not declared war on anyone.

Enrile said he hoped the controversy would end with the senators’ agreement to submit their finances to COA auditing.

Lacson admitted the other day that Concurrent Resolution No. 10 was used by senators as a “legal cover” to prevent the itemized audit of senators’ funds, which are apart from those allotted for the Senate secretariat.

“The position of the COA chairperson even at the time was that there was no justification under the Constitution for allowing the use of certification. So we talked about the legal cover… the concurrent resolution,” Lacson told reporters.

He said a concurrent resolution is supposed to have the effect of law, but “that’s stretching it too much because this is not included in our legislative work.”

Constitutional mandate

In the two-page letter sent to the Senate last Monday, Tan cited Article IX-D Section 2 (1) of the Constitution, which grants the COA “the power, authority and duty to examine, audit, and settle all accounts pertaining to the… expenditures or uses of funds and property owned or held in trust by, or pertaining to, the Government, or any of its subdivisions, agencies or instrumentalities.”

Article VI Section 20, the COA noted, provides that “the records and books of accounts of Congress shall be preserved and be open to the public in accordance with law, and such books shall be audited by the COA, which shall publish annually an itemized list of amounts paid to and expenses incurred by each member.”

Tan also invoked the constitutional provision stating that no law shall be passed exempting any entity of the government from the jurisdiction of the COA.

Copies of her letter were sent to Sen. Franklin Drilon, who chairs the Senate committee on finance; the assistant commissioner of the national government cluster at the COA; and the cluster director, supervising auditor and audit team leader at the Senate.