MANILA – Former Tourism secretary Wanda Teo and a former department executive have withdrawn P2.5 million worth of luxury items from Duty Free stores in 2017, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.
Duty Free items including branded bags, luxury-brand cosmetics, appliances, and chocolates were withdrawn from stores on the orders of Teo and the department’s former undersecretary for administration and special concerns, Rolando Cañizal, a 2017 COA audit report showed.
Duty Free Philippines Corp. (DFPC), which sells tax-free luxury items, is a government-owned and -controlled corporation under the Tourism department.
Teo issued memos to withdraw items worth P43,885 while Cañizal withdrew items worth P1.37 million. Duty Free also withdrew items for the Department of Tourism worth P758,525 and this was charged to funds intended for the agency’s programs, the COA said.
In addition, the Tourism department withdrew P346,446 worth of merchandise from a Duty Free store from May to September 2017. This was not properly logged, resulting in an understatement of receivables and overstatement of the inventory, the COA found out.
Moreover, around 300 Duty Free items – toiletries, kitchen wares, beddings, appliances, canned goods, branded bags, luxury-brand cosmetics, and chocolates – were authorized by Tourism officials to be delivered to their offices through Gate Pass Slips (GPS), the audit report showed.
“The 277 items costing US$6,938.35, or P346,446.80, apart from the US$43,091.13, or P2,174,150.08, that were recorded in the books, were all duly receipted by the Office of the DOT Secretary upon the release of the items from the DFPC warehouse based on the issued and approved GPS,” the COA said.
Also, the P3.797 million worth of merchandise, consultancy fee and shipping cost was deducted from the agency’s share in Duty Free’s net profit – in violation of Republic Act 9593, or the Tourism Act of 2009, said the commission.
“Stop the practice of directly charging from DOT’s share in DFPC’s net profits for the cost of items withdrawn by DOT from the DFPC stores and other payments made by DFPC for and in behalf of the DOT pursuant to the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) No. 9593 (Tourism Act of 2009),” the COA said./PN
