THE Commission on Audit had scrutinized the House of Representatives’ spending in the six years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term, and it found no red flags in its use of public funds, records showed.
This was contrary to Duterte’s claim that the COA was afraid to audit the House because it controls the purse strings.
Duterte had called the House the “most rotten institution” after it removed the confidential funds of the offices of his daughter, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte.
The COA’s annual audit reports on the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2022, all publicly available and posted on its website, showed that the legislative chamber did not have any flagged transactions, and only got called out for delays in submitting documents, said the abogado.ph
The report for the House’s 2022 expenses also found nothing amiss.
“For CY 2022 and prior years, no Notice of Suspension, Notice of Disallowance, and Notice of Charge was issued,” the audit agency said.
These notices are issued when the COA finds insufficient documents, irregularities, or improperly computed amounts in relation to government transactions or activities.
The COA also said there were no Priority Development Assistance Fund or Disbursement Acceleration Program Fund from 2017 to 2022.
The audit agency commended the House for its prompt remittance of employees’ contributions to the Government Service Insurance System, Home Development Mutual Fund, and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and for providing facilities for senior citizens and differently-abled employees and visitors.
As for the House’s Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses that Duterte had targeted, the COA had said that these are audited regularly, unlike confidential funds.
