COA urged to release audit findings of Office of the President

National

THE Commission on Audit (COA) was also urged to release its audit findings on the Office of the President's spending on its P4.5 billion confidential and intelligence fund (CIF).

Renato Reyes, president of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said, just like how the public scrutinizes the Office of the Vice President’s CIF, “we (should also) examine the OP’s confidential and intel funds, which are several times bigger than the OVP’s.”

“The Office of the President spent almost half of the total P10.4-billion confidential and intelligence fund allocation for 2023, with a total of P4.56 billion. That is a mind-blowing amount,” Reyes said, as per an Inquirer report.

“In the name of transparency and accountability, COA should release all its audit findings on the OP’s confidential and intel funds” Reyes added.

According to COA’s Annual Financial Report, the OP is the top confidential and intelligence fund spender for 2023, maintaining the same level as last year (2022).

The OP spent P2.25 billion and P2.31 billion on confidential and intelligence funds in 2023, totaling P4.5 billion.

Confidential funds are used for surveillance/confidential activities in civilian government agencies that support the agency’s operations or mandate, while intelligence funds are used for intelligence information gathering of military personnel and other uniformed personnel.

In the same COA report, the second highest spender of confidential funds is the Justice Department with P683,853,000; third top spender is the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency with P500 million, which is followed by the Office of the Vice President with P375 million.

A GMA News report stated that in 2023, the Philippine government spent at least P10 billion in confidential funds.(COA)