MANILA — The Philippine Information Agency (PIA) has been flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) for a P206.304-million discrepancy in the value of its property, plant, and equipment (PPE) from what was recorded in its books vs the physical inventory.
The COA noted in its 2021 annual audit report that the PIA’s books of accounts of General Ledger as of Dec. 31, 2021 indicated that there is a total value of P420.128 million for its PPE.
The COA, however, stated on the report on the Physical Count of PPE (RPCPPE) as of last Dec. 31, there was a balance of only P237.102 million, hence a discrepancy of P206.304 million from its books.
According to the audit body, this could mean that some PPE were missing or unaccounted for or that they were erroneously evaluated or classified.
The biggest discrepancy was in office equipment, which was valued at P119.768 million but only yielded P15.388 million in physical count valuation, a difference of P104.380 million.
Meanwhile, it was declared that the value of “Other Machineries and Equipment” in the books is P26.020 million but the physical count report only amounted to P2.852 million, a discrepancy of P23.168 million.
According to the COA, the discrepancy between the PIA’s books and physical inventory report has been a recurring adverse observation since 2017 but the agency did little to address the issue.
“The unreconciled balance of PPE accounts with the RPCPPE has been an issue since 2017 but Management efforts to verify the cause/s of the discrepancy seem inadequate. Had there been a regular reconciliation of the Accounting and Property Section’s records, the details of the discrepancy could have been easily determined and promptly adjusted,” it added.
Nonetheless, the COA stated that the PIA management had already agreed to the audit recommendation to its accountant and property officer to verify and reconcile the discrepancies and maintain updated property records.
In the same audit report, the COA also called out the PIA over P12.275 million unliquidated cash advances of its regional offices (ROs).
The COA mentioned that during the previous years, 84.06 percent or P10.319 million were granted of the total unliquidated cash advances, while P1.956 million were granted in 2021.
According to the COA, this violated Section 89 of PD 1445, which specifies that no additional cash advances will be issued to any official or employee unless his or her previous cash advance has been settled or accounted for.
The COA said that the PIA has agreed to the following audit recommendations: to continuously issue demand letters to all ROs for the liquidation of advances which purpose had already been served, to refrain from granting new/additional CAs unless the previous ones are liquidated or properly accounted for, and to withhold the salaries of concerned accountable officers who failed to liquidate the past due CAs until such time the same have been fully liquidated.
The PIA was established in 1986 as an agency under the Presidential Communications Operations Office with the primary mandate “to provide the people with accurate, timely and relevant information that will help them to make better decisions.”
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