COA: Gov't execs face charges for unexplained cash advances

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) will be filing criminal charges against heads of various government agencies that have billions of pesos in cash advances that remain unliquidated for at least 10 years.

COA Chairwoman Grace Pulido Tan told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that in two months time, they will sue the officials - even if they are no longer in position - for the unaccounted cash advances that date back to 10 to 15 years.

"We were able to come up with a list of these individuals and organizations that have not made liquidations and we are now in the process of making suyod so that we can file the appropriate cases through the Office of the Ombudsman," Tan said during the resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the alleged pork barrel scam.

Tan did not identify the government officials who would be charged.

She said the unexplained cash advances may have been misused and some of them went to non-government organizations (NGOs).

"We have a provision in criminal law that when somebody is given a cash advance and is not able to liquidate that within the prescribed period and upon demand, there is already a presumption in law that that money was malversed," Tan said at the televised public hearing.

The COA chief said the attention of the officials to be sued have been called repeatedly due to the unliquidated cash advances that have been building up.

Tan said they made a "final demand" two years ago to these government officials to liquidate their fund advances already.

"Pero hindi naman po nila inaaksyonan 'yung aming mga findings," she said.

Tan also regretted that the lack of a computerized system in COA prevented them to be more expeditious.

During the hearing, the Securities and Exchange Commission also lamented that have not detected fraud in the registration process of NGOs since the agency lack more personnel and equipment.

Read: Gov't can't detect fraud among NGOs due to lack of resources