“Actually, it is misleading,” said Undersecretary Luisito G.
Montalbo, Executive Director of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the
Peace Process, about the Commission on Audit report.
“If you look at the report, it has a lot of observations.
But, what is important is the recommendation of the resident auditor at the end
of the report, which is to secure the approval of the Department of Budget and
Management for the vehicle rentals. This we have complied with and received DBM
approval on September 15, 2015,” Montalbo said.
He further stressed that COA did not disallow the rentals as
it even confirmed the OPAPP’s compliance with an executive order that required
“ad hoc agencies with specific tasks to perform” to merely rent, and not
outright purchase vehicles, for their operational use.
“The report was intended to strengthen and tighten
procedures,” the OPAPP undersecretary said.
Law allows OPAPP to rent vehicles
Montalbo said that OPAPP operates on a national scale but
has no regional offices nor facilities to address operational needs as
necessitated by the substantive developments on the peace tables and programs
on the ground.
He cited as legal basis for OPAPP’s vehicle rentals Section 76,
Chapter 7, Book 6 of the Administrative Code of 1987, which allowed this
expenditure on the condition that “(W)here the motor vehicle would be used by a
presidential ad hoc body/ agency mandated to perform a specific task within a
specific period in which case, motor vehicle rental is deemed more economical,
expedient, and convenient than outright purchase.”
The OPAPP, Montalbo pointed out, is an ad hoc body created
under Executive Order No. 125, series of 1993, as amended by Executive Order
No. 3, series of 2001.
“It is really per transaction, per need, that we rent
vehicles,” Montalbo said. “Halimbawa, ang OPAPP ang oversight agency ng PAMANA.
For us to fulfill our function of monitoring the projects, which are, more
often than not, located in hard-to-reach and conflict-affected areas, we have
to deploy staff for site visits, community consultations, etc. So for this
purpose, we do not have a choice but to rent vehicles.”
“PAMANA is a P7.2-billion program in 2014 covering 48
provinces with more than 10,000 projects, so you can imagine the operational
requirement to monitor these projects. This is over and above the required
security protection when the staff go on field work,” Montalbo explained.
“OPAPP also needs to rent motor vehicles for the use of the
peace bodies under the Mindanao peace process,
including the International Monitoring Team and other ceasefire monitoring
mechanisms,” he added.
Questions on COA findings
Montalbo added that OPAPP also has questions and
clarifications with regard to the report. He cited as an example the claim that
OPAPP failed to respond to a COA communication dated November 6, 2014 asking
for the status of projects covered by the Php 662-million fund which the report
identified as unliquidated.
“It is not true that we did not respond. We have submitted
our report, duly received by COA last January 13, 2015, where we accounted for
all of the projects covered in the P662-million fund using the format they
required,” he added.
“This debunks allegations that the P662-million fund was
missing or unaccounted for,” the OPAPP undersecretary said.
“OPAPP has always maintained its commitment to good
governance, especially to transparent and accountable management. It is for
this that we have consistently practiced due diligence in the implementation of
our programs, and strict compliance to government auditing and accounting rules
and regulations,” Montalbo said.
“We have provided responses to all COA inquiries and
observations through submission of Reports of Management Actions and Plans,
which are discussed during audit exit conferences, the latest of which was held
last October,” Montalbo said.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=840535
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