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The Department of Finance (DOF) has heeded senators’ calls for the return of P33 billion in dormant funds deposited with Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Thursday.
Drilon cited a letter from Finance Secretary Carlos Domínguez III asking the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to support President Duterte in issuing a directive for the transfer of PITC funds to the national treasury.
The Senate minority leader was delighted that the DOF “acted swiftly” on its claim that up to 33 billion pesos were idle in PITC accounts, maintained for various agencies, including 7.04 billion pesos for the Philippine Army.
He said Domínguez called to inform him of the DOF’s response to his disclosure.
In a privilege speech on Tuesday, Drilon said that P33 billion in public funds was “parked” in PITC accounts, allowing agencies to circumvent government budget laws.
On Wednesday, Senator Francis Pangilinan asked President Duterte to issue an executive order for the return of the 33,000 million pesos to the national coffers. He said that some of the money could be used to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.
Answering for the Palace on Thursday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the funds could not simply be diverted for other purposes, as the PITC had them for government agencies.
If the funds are used for other purposes, the move could be a violation of the law, Roque said at a news conference.
PITC has a large amount of funds, but continues to serve requests from import agencies, he said.
Citing PITC figures, Roque said that the company had delivered and settled P627 million in projects, while pending projects amounted to P492.59 million.
Endorsement of Duterte
On Wednesday, however, Domínguez wrote to the DBM requesting President Duterte’s endorsement of an order to return the money to the national treasury.
The PITC, an agency overseen by the Department of Commerce and Industry (DTI), is the government’s procurement arm. You have been tasked with acquiring COVID-19 vaccines for the government’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, the DTI said that the PITC returned to the national coffers in October more than P1 billion out of P9 billion in unspent funds it had for government agencies.
Commerce Secretary Ramón López, who is also PITC president, showed reporters on Viber an image of a report that sought to resolve some of the red flags raised by the Audit Commission (COA) about funds held by the trading company.
Lopez did not send reporters a full copy of the report, but the part he showed said that the PITC returned to the treasury P1.23 billion on October 30. The remaining P7.9 billion covered orders now in the process of being acquired or in execution, the report said.
The report did not explain why it had taken so long to deal with the unspent funds when the COA raised the same issue in its 2018 audit report on PITC and reiterated the question in its 2019 audit of the business company. —WITH REPORTS FROM ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA
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