The Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education led by Vice President Sara Duterte submitted documents with wrong dates, signatures without names of signatories and illegible names of signatories to justify the disbursement of its confidential funds in 2022 and 2023, the Commission on Audit (COA) said on Tuesday.

During the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability’s investigation into the use of the OVP budget, 1-Rider party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez asked the listener of the COA, Gloria Camora, if the acknowledgments of receipt (AR) submitted by the OVP to justify the disbursement of its confidential funds for 2022 were dated December 2023, to which the latter responded with the affirmative.

Camora said many ARs are dated December 2023, but COA does not have data on the exact number. She said there were also undated ARs.

Gutierrez said based on his study, 158 ARs, amounting to P23 million, have incorrect dates. He said this should be a cause of concern for the COA.

“If this was an error made by 158 people, is that an acceptable margin of error for the COA?” » asked the legislator.

In response, Camora cited OVP’s response to the COA which said the ARs “inadvertently contained a clerical or typographical error indicating 2023 instead of 2022.”

The OVP response added “given the nature of confidential activities which are generally conducted discreetly and completed in a short period of time, in addition to the lack of attention to detail of personnel handling voluminous documents” and that “some dates and AR submitted as proof of transaction may have been missed”,

Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, for his part, asked Camora if she knew that there were 787 ARs with anonymous signatories and 302 ARs with illegible signatory names submitted by the OVP and DepEd to justify its confidential fund in 2023.

Camora replied: “Yes, Mr. President. »

The COA official also said the location of the Youth Leadership Summits (YLS) in 2023 did not match the locations where the DepEd purchased information paid for by its confidential fund.

During the panel hearing on October 17, it was revealed that the DepEd under the leadership of Vice President Duterte had used certifications of military officialswithout the soldiers’ knowledge, to justify the disbursement of 15 million pesos from its confidential funds for the payment of informants in 2023.

The DepEd’s justification for spending P15 million of its confidential funds was based on the documents submitted by the OVP to the COA that this expenditure was for the Youth Leadership Summit (YLS).

“Humingi po ko ako ng reports evidence of success (in paying informants) as required by the COA. Report Nung nakita ko po ‘yung (certification), ang pagkakaintindi ko po est hinold ‘yung mga seminars through the coordination and information received from the DepEd. So I took the certificate (from them),” said Michael Poa, former OVP and DepEd spokesperson.

Acop then concluded that, in such circumstances, the confidential fund had either been pocketed or used for other purposes, which amounted to the offense of technical misappropriation of public funds.

“If the liquidation is false and the funds were not used as they were supposed to be, then (criminal liability for technical malfeasance) is the logical conclusion. Would you agree with me, Madam? » asked Acop.

Camora said: “Personal opinion, yes, Mr. President. Yes, I would have to agree.

GMA News Online reached out to OVP for comment but has yet to receive a response at the time of publication. —AOL, GMA Integrated News