Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones yesterday called for a congressional inquiry into the Commission on Audit (CoA) report that assailed the Philippine National Railways (PNR) for spending 20 times more than its allowed provision for miscellaneous expenses which included expenses for “meetings and official entertainments.”
Palmones said the CoA report should be examined closely as the House of Representatives is now in the thick of the deliberation for the proposed P2.006-trillion national budget for 2013.
The administration solon said the issue may either be investigated by an appropriate House committee or taken up on Aug. 23 when the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) defends its 2013 budget proposal.
The PNR, which is headed by General Manager Junio Ragragio, is an agency under the supervision of the DoTC.
“I want to know what is an ‘official entertainment’ that justifies spending people’s money,”  Palmones said.
In its 2012 audit of PNR’s finances, CoA bared that while PNR’s approved allocation for miscellaneous expenses was only P72,000, its actual miscellaneous expenditure reached P1.46 million.
CoA ordered Ragragio to submit comments on the observations made by an audit team that examined the state-run railway firm’s finances.
“We found out that in the replenishments for working fund of the PNR disbursing officer that expenses for meetings and official entertainments were incurred during the year by the Office of the General Manager, Legal Division and in the meetings of the Board of Directors totalling P1.46 million,” the audit team led by Mayola Salita stated in their report.
Salita said allotted fund for extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses in the corporate operating budget of the PNR should be limited to “a mere P72,000” if the provisions of the approved General Appropriations Act (GAA) are to be followed.
According to CoA, the PNR management did not propose any budget for representation expense for the year.
“Also, the approved budget for miscellaneous expense of P3.62 million wherein the expenses for office representation were charged vis-a-vis the actual cost of other MOOE (maintenance and other operating expenses) amounting to P4.11 million in the trial balance as of Dec. 31, 2012 revealed overspending by the PNR,” the audit team said.
The audit examiners said PNR officials led by Ragragio should comment on the observations made by them.
CoA said guidelines for the disbursement of extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses for government-owned and -controlled corporations are provided under CoA Circular 2006-001.
“The objective is to ensure the prevention of irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant or unconscionable uses of government funds,” the CoA auditors said.
The audit examiners said a ceiling on the amount of disbursement should follow what is prescribed in the corporate charter or from authority derived from the amount fixed in the GAA.