The Commission on Audit has told the Department of Justice (DOJ) to liquidate a total of P75.141 million in cash advances made by officers and staff of the agency.
State auditors noted that the 2021 annual audit report submitted by the DOJ, showed that out of P190.22 million cash advances, P115.078 million were either liquidated or refunded, leaving a balance of P75.141 million.
“We recommended that management direct all concerned accountable officers to liquidate their cash advances within the prescribed period,” the auditors said.
A breakdown of the balance showed unliquidated cash advances to the Office of the Secretary Confidential Fund worth 23.698 million, Witness Protection Security and Benefit Program Confidential Fund worth P44.777 million and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking Confidential Fund amounting to P6.619 million.
Other advances were for operating expenses and those made by other officers and employees of the DOJ.
The auditors reiterated that all cash advances must be fully liquidated at the end of each year.
“A cash advance shall be reported on and liquidated as soon as the purpose for which it was given has been served,” the auditors said.
The audit report also noted unobligated or unutilized allotments amounting to P316.209 million, mainly due to unimplemented planned projects. This is around 3.26 percent of the total allotments for the department worth P9.712 billion.
“These are still material and are more than enough to affect the level of efficiency of the Department’s implementation capabilities,” the auditors noted.
The DOJ, however, maintained that some of the funds were for utilization in 2022, such as for network switches for communication networks of the department.
The COVID-19 pandemic also affected projects, the DOJ said.
“The implementation of the subject projects was halted due to implementation of several community quarantine lockdown and work suspensions in Calendar Years 2020 and 2021 due to COVID – 19 pandemic,” the auditors noted.