COA upholds Duterte office’s P73-million disallowance for confidential funds

MANILA — The Commission on Audit has denied the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) motion for reconsideration for the disallowance of its P73-million confidential expenses in 2022. 

COA, in August last year, issued the notice of disallowance on the OVP’s spending of some P73,287,000 out of P125 million confidential funds.

Based on COA’s notice of disallowance, P69.7 million were disallowed due to the non-submission of documents evidencing the success of information gathering or surveillance activities to support the acknowledgment receipts for payments of rewards in cash, various goods and medicines. 

The remaining P3.5 million were disallowed because they were payments for tables, chairs, desktop computers and printers, but there was no specification that they were intended for confidential operations or activities.