MANILA – The Commission on Audit (COA) flagged down the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for unutilized funds and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for not delivering equipment to its officers.
In an annual audit report, the COA said P3.027 billion of the 3.859 billion unutilized funds was allocated for AFP modernization while P750 million was for calamity and P69.87 million was for pension.
“The non-utilization of the multibillion-peso fund hinders the attainment of the goals of the Agency, and its accomplishment is not within the targeted budget for programs/activities,” the COA said.
The COA added that it has called the attention of AFP, and the latter agreed that programs, projects and activities to be undertaken must be properly planned to ensure the attainment of its goals.
Meanwhile the COA said the PNP failed to deliver to police officers P1.347 billion worth of mobility and combat equipment it bought two years ago.
Various mobility and combat asset requirements procured from the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) remained undelivered last year, the COA annual audit report stated.
“The combat assets could have greatly contributed to the capability of the police force to effectively and efficiently accomplish its mandate, and would have benefited PNP personnel had the items been delivered in the year when the Agency Procurement Requests were issued to the PITC,” the COA said.
“The undelivered items should be delivered within the next six months or else the PITC should return the amount advanced to the company so it could be returned to the national treasury,” it added.
Moreover the COA noted that the purchase of P1.893 billion worth of patrol vehicles from Mahindra Enforcer and Mahindra Scorpio in 2015 was “disadvantageous” to the PNP due to various problems with the vehicles.
Among most common complaints about Mahindra vehicles were their high fuel consumption, frequent breakdowns, poor after-sales services, and limited availability of spare parts, the COA said./PN
