GOVERNMENT auditors have demanded an explanation from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for spending P4.816 million while staying in swanky hotels and restaurants for meetings and activities.
The NCIP, an agency under the Office of the President, is tasked with protecting the rights, ancestral lands, and culture of indigenous cultural communities from intrusion and marginalization.
The 2019 audit report released last October 7 was forwarded to the office of NCIP chairperson Allen Capuyan on September 15, 2020.
Auditors said of the amount being questioned, P3.836 million was spent on “meals and accommodations” in 2018 and P979,695.93 in 2019 during “program/project and activities (PPAs).
“It was observed that the said activities were mostly conducted at high-end hotels and restaurants where food and accommodation was relatively high compared to other alternative venues. The adoption of austerity measures was not observed …thus, the scarce resources of the government were not effectively and efficiently managed,” they pointed out.
Notified of the audit findings, the NCIP management said it will submit justifications why “almost all of the activities of the agency were held in costly hotels and restaurants.”
It also promised to cut down on extravagant spending on future events that would require hefty hotel bills and to observe prudence on the use of public funds to avoid suspension and disallowance in audit.
Among the venues mentioned in the report were Highland Resort in Camiguin and Duka Bay in Medina, Misamis Oriental as well as hotel/resorts in Cagayan de Oro City.
To make matters worse, the audit team likewise found that the liquidation of bills was not supported by proper documentation. On top of this, the rules on public bidding were disregarded.
“Only those high-end hotels and restaurants were given Request for Quotations (RFQ) / Letter of Invitations (LOI) to bid. It was also revealed that these transactions were paid even with incomplete supporting documents,” the COA said.
While NCIP’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) declared a resort/hotel/restaurant as “lone bidder” the proof of posting on the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) website was not produced.
“These activities proved to be costly. Soe of the meeting/conferences/mid-year/year-end assessments …could have been done in just one day but were extended for another day which caused additional and unnecessary meals and accommodations expenses,” the COA added.
