Palace defends news bureau’s ‘excessive’ phone, Internet bills

MANILA, Philippines – The alleged excessive phone and Internet bills of members of President Aquino’s communications group as declared by the Commission on Audit (COA) are justifiable under the circumstances, a Palace official said yesterday.

Outgoing Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. defended the expenses incurred by the News and Information Bureau (NIB), which is under his direct control and supervision.

“The NIB responded to the audit observation. It needed everything that could be used to connect to the Internet in order to perform its mandate of disseminating correct and timely information to the public and concerned government officials,” Coloma said in Filipino. 

State auditors discovered in 2015 nearly a million expenses attributable to the NIB – which handles the administration’s news coverage and media relations concerns.

The COA warned that such unchecked spending might violate auditing rules and regulations.

State auditors said the NIB spent too much on mobile phone and Internet subscriptions last year. Although they admitted there was no written policy on the issuance and utilization of postpaid plans and prepaid mobile allowances, this indicated lapses on internal control. 

“Analysis of all paid disbursement vouchers related to these transactions amounting to P939,350.45 in 2015 showed that NIB had 34 postpaid plans granted to its officials and employees and allowed reimbursement of prepaid mobile allowances to its field employees assigned in the Philippine News Agency,” the COA report said.

It said the postpaid plans varied from P1,000 to P3,500 per month, with one plan worth P5,000 per month. Scrutiny of the statement of accounts showed the actual utilization of several postpaid plans exceeded the approved plan per month.

“These were still allowed and paid by NIB despite the absence of required justification by the end-users,” state auditors said.

The audit team said there was no ceiling for the reimbursements made for the mobile allowances of employees and only official receipts, regardless of the amount, were required to support the reimbursements. 

“Since the NIB does not have written policy on the issuance and utilization of postpaid plans and prepaid mobile allowances, this privilege is subject to abuse and might result in the incurrence of unnecessary expenses,” the COA report said.

State auditors said the agency should strengthen its control over postpaid plans and prepaid mobile allowances by establishing written policies to be disseminated to all end-users for guidance and compliance.

As for last year’s Internet expenses, “the COA report said the NIB spent P1.79 million by subscribing to numerous Internet connections that may result to incurrence of unnecessary expenses prohibited in COA Circular No. 2012-003 dated Oct. 29, 2012.” 

Records showed the agency actually subscribed to three Internet service providers (ISPs), holding 49 different accounts with monthly plans ranging from P999 to P25,000.

The NIB told the audit team that the Internet subscriptions were allowed because of the necessity for uninterrupted and faster connections for its operations.

State auditors opined that while the acquisition of separate accounts might have been the immediate solution at the time of necessity, proper planning and consultation with ISPs would likely result in finding a service package that is sufficient for the agency’s needs at a fraction of the cost.

“We recommended that management evaluate the cost-effectiveness of all Internet subscriptions to optimize the limited resources of NIB and ensure that no unnecessary expenses will be incurred,” the audit team said.