Home Opinion Red-flagged by COA: CDC pulls a fast one amid Covid pandemic

Red-flagged by COA: CDC pulls a fast one amid Covid pandemic

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CLARK FREEPORT Mired in the coronavirus pandemic, the Filipino people are diseased, dying, despondent, destitute.

What remains of the workforce risk their life and that of their loved ones just to assure a next meal at the family table, especially in the hardluck MCR-Plus bubble, and veritably lockdowned areas around Metro Clark experiencing some Covid surge.

The health system is at its breaking point. Local government units are scraping rock bottom of their coffers, if only to cope with the everspiraling needs of their constituents.

Amid these the direst of straits, the state-run Clark Development Corp. managed to provide brand-new service vehicles to seven of its nine-membered board of directors. The vehicles were bought in August last year and given in October and November. Two directors those who did not get the largesse, it was not said also reimbursed fuel expenses.

In a 2020 audit report released April 6, the Commission on Audit flagged as “unnecessary” the purchase of service vehicles for the members of the CDC board on top of their annual P240,000 transportation and meals allowance. So Rappler reported April 11 under the headline Return service vehicles, COA tells [CDC] directors.

The CDC response to COA: the new vehicles help the directors “discharge their official functions and give them the stature commensurate to their position.”

The sense of service for all its corporate trimmings, CDC is still a government body totally swallowed by a sense of entitlement. COA did not have to say.

Rather, it emphasized that any form of allowance not authorized by the law or charter, or not approved by the Office of the President, is “considered irregular or illegal expenditure.”

Impacting upon CDC that Section 24 of Republic Act No. 10149, or the GOCCs Governance Act of 2011, also states that failure to return excessive allowances and incentives might lead to imprisonment of one year and fines equivalent to double the contested amount.

 

P3.6-M renovated villas

Privileged not just with new vehicles but with villas too, CDC directors never had it so good, or so it seems.

Per the audit report, COA also flagged the use of nine villas inside the freeport, with renovation costs amounting to P3.56 million. The villas incurred utility bills amounting to P1.14 million for electricity and P94,962.29 for water, the Rappler story said.

It added that COA told CDC and the directors to vacate the villas and refund the expenses, as “the use of government property for personal purposes is considered irregular and unethical.”

“The audit team did not see the necessity of providing a staff house to the [CDC directors] considering that the average number of meetings conducted per month is only three meetings,” COA said. 

Profligacy just made the very definition of CDC there. At its utmost contemptibility, given the pandemic times.

The story did not identify the brand of the vehicles or the concerned CDC directors. For the record, CDC board chairman Edgardo Pamintuan was appointed only this February, while CDC president-CEO Manuel Gaerlan assumed office last January. The service vehicles were purchased in August last year and distributed to the directors in October and November. With Rappler.com

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