IMBESTIGAHAN! KASUHAN! IKULONG ANG BABAING ITO! CULPABLE VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION, BETRAYAL OF PUBLIS TRUST AND GRAFT AND CORRUPTION . Tan as early as July 2012 was warned about the illegality of DAP and a budget circular that allowed the transfer of funds to what is considered as the Presidential pork barrel. One of the seven functions of COA under Article IX-D, Sec. 2-(l) of the 1987 Constitution is “To keep the general accounts of the government,” and under Sec, 12-(2) of P. D. 1445 or the Auditing Code of the Philippines, COA “shall verify the appropriations of national government agencies and control fund releases thereto.” “COA central office has its accountancy office whose main focus is the analysis of general and special accounts of government. The auditing unit in the National Treasury monitors daily the status of the general and special funds such as the DAP, Malampaya and others which are lodged to the general fund. These status of funds are reported regularly to the Accountancy Office,” he said. Since Tan is both a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a lawyer, every senior auditor in COA knows and even swear that as early as the end of July, 2012, a few days after Secretary Abad issued his illegal National Budget Circular 541 on July 18, 2012, Tan was informed by the Accountancy Office, then headed by Assistant Commissioner Jaime Naranjo that DAP is illegal and a violation of the Constitution. “Naranjo’s relationship with the COA chairman turned sour that he decided to apply for an early retirement. He is now retired and lives somewhere in Mindanao,” Besana added. Tan requested in August 2011 for P200 million from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad gave her P143.7 million DAP money for COA’s IT, CCTV, consultants, and vehicles, Besana said. Tan requested for money because according to her, during the budget hearing COA had no money. She said: “When I started April 20, 2011, the CoA almost does not have anything, no vehicles, no equipment, The chairman’s office only have tables and chairs. We requested from DBM. I personally wrote DBM in August 2011, she added. “Shortly after the foregoing statements of Tan, I received numerous texts from COA old timers telling me that ‘what she said was not true because if one would visit the COA central office compound it can be seen crawling with brand new cars and all sorts of vehicles assigned to directors and unit heads,” Besana said. Besana added that almost simultaneously with the issuance by Abad of his unconstitutional National Budget Circular 541, Tan also issued her similarly unconstitutional unnumbered memorandum circular dated May 10, 2013 but which took effect in 2011 which turned COA from a collegial body into a mere bureau. “It placed the overseeing of the audit of national and local government agencies and corporate and international bodies under the exclusive jurisdiction of the partisan, incompetent, dishonest COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza whose only peculiar merit is her propensity for making false and malicious speculations without visible and incontrovertible evidence,” he said. Besana claimed that no one can inquire on the status of audit in any office without first informing the COA chairman. “The circular also installed a spy network nationwide with an acronym of SOUP or sector for S. office for O, unit for U and personnel for P. In other words Tan has eyes and ears in every sector (national, local or corporate audit unit) in every office in the sector and every audit unit personnel,” he added. Besana said senior auditors of COA who represent the best minds in the audit institution and who have been the saving grace of all administrations believe that the unnumbered circular of Tan was issued to insure the smooth implementation of DAP under Abad’s infamous circular 541. “What transpired after the issuance of the two circulars may now be described as the blackest page in our history as far as budgeting and auditing processes are concerned if we have to consider the shameful incidents that transpired among others as in the case of the impeachment trial of (former Chief Justice Renato) Corona, the scenario in Cavite between and among (Interior Secretary) Mar Roxas, Butch Abad and (Senator) Bong Revilla, and the giving of DAP money to Grace Tan. These are bits of images that could make every well meaning citizen of this country sad and lament,” he said. “Revilla has strong and valid reason to fight back fiercely, You made me bite the apple now you say I committed the original sin,” Besana said. He added Tan tolerated, if not encouraged, the impunity of corruption in the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other government offices. Tan failed to exercise her duties and authority as mandated by the Constitution, the decisions of the Supreme Court with finality, Presidential Decree (P.D.) 1445, the Revised Administrative Code, particular provisions of the General Appropriation Acts, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and the Civil Service Law, he added. Tan, he said, has her own way of not displeasing presidential favorites presumably in the hope of preserving her good graces with the President and the gods around him. “But such posturing inevitably compromises COA’s credibility and thereby undermine transparency and good governance,” he said. Even after I have officially informed Tan through a letter on January 27, 2012, that the officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) had gifted on December 21, 2011, 11 auditors assigned in the DA in the amount of P40,000.00 each or a total of P440,000.00 plus groceries, until now she has not taken any punitive measure against the DA officials in violation of Sections 32 and 43, Chapter 5 and 80, Chapter 7, Book VI, Revised Administrative Code of 1987, and pertinent provisions of the General Appropriations Act for 2011 which subject givers of illegal or unauthorized additional compensation to disciplinary actions and penalties including summary dismissal from the service after due process, he said. The audit of the Priority Development Fund (PDAF) or the pork barrel of members of Congress under Tan was bad enough for being faulty, the audit report was worse for being crude; and its release was worst for being selective and bias, he said. The audit mechanism was never discussed in the commission proper as a collegial body, the auditees or officials of the agency audited were never able to explain their sides in an exit conference before the audit report was finalized and the release of the audit report caught everyone by surprise because it was selective, he added. Tan during her incumbency as chairman traveled to other countries more than thirty times and was out of her office in the Philippines more than 500 days or more than one year, Besana added. “COA has a plantilla of over 15,000. As of today it has only a little over 6,000 auditing personnel composed mostly of certified public accountants and lawyers. About 1000 are applying for early retirement but are being told to stay. Hundreds are facing administrative charges allegedly for negligence in the audit of PDAF. But as of today, however, the most negligent auditor is Tan for neglecting to disallow the DAP,” Besana said. ...Written by Tribune Sunday, 06 July 2014
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 13:13:15 +0000
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