Commission on Audit Report: Millions in Palace donations diverted

CoA Report: Millions in Palace donations diverted
By Angie M. Rosales
Daily Tribune 07/16/2008
Hundreds of millions of pesos in unliquidated cash advances, loans with no records; donations diverted and used outside of their intended purposes; understated expenses, overstated accounts, and the high cost of foreign and domestic travels incurred by the Office of the President (OP) last year have been uncovered by the Commission on Audit (CoA).
The CoA report for the fiscal year 2007 bared a lot of discrepancies in Malacaang's way of handling public monies, as the audit agency noted a total of P633 million in unliquidated cash advances to regular and special disbursing officers of the OP that have remained unliquidated as of yearend while loans granted out of the President?s Social Fund (PSF) dating back to 2003 to January 2004 with a sum of P270 million were not booked up.
These revelations prompted opposition Sen. Loren Legarda to move for a full-blown investigation into what she stressed are alleged disbursement irregularities in the Palace.
In seeking an inquiry under Resolution 495, she pointed out that these reported irregularities in the disbursements of government need to be reviewed in the light of the principle that such funds are expected to be expended for the benefit of the country, especially the marginalized. The rest of the story.

GSIS chief,board accused
of P1B diversion