COA flags OVP over relief operation discrepancies

The photo of the Commission on Audit's office in Quezon CIty taken on Aug. 17, 2021.

The STAR / Michael Varcas

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the Office of the Vice President over its inconsistencies, deviations from orders and missing or incomplete documents in relation to the OVP’s P168 million worth of relief operations in 2025.

In a 273-page report on the 2025 Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, the COA said it found discrepancies in the situation reports prepared by the OVP and the validation prepared by local government units for relief operations involving P19.67-million welfare goods.

Discrepancies were found in the reported number of affected families while some LGUs did not indicate a beneficiary count.

Auditors also questioned 24 relief operations involving welfare goods worth P39 million that did not follow the OVP mission order without documented approval.

The COA said the deviations included changes in schedules, distribution locations, quantities of relief items and the amount of rice distributed.

“While management cited operational adjustments due to changing field conditions, the absence of documented approvals weakened assurance that the changes were properly authorized and supported,” the report read.

Auditors also said they found eight mission orders for OVP relief distributions worth P84.12 million with no specified target beneficiaries, only indicating that the relief goods will be distributed to “affected or displaced families.”

“Although management explained that this provided operational flexibility during emergencies, the absence of defined beneficiary targets weakened the basis for determining the quantities of relief goods requested and distributed,” the report read.

The COA also flagged “missing, incomplete or non-submission of required documents” to support relief operations involving P25.27 million in relief goods that supposedly went to 33,980 beneficiaries.

It said these were not supported by complete pre-operation documents such as situation reports, mission orders and verified master lists.

“In one instance, the required RDS (relief distribution sheet) was unavailable due to records reportedly lost during typhoon Kristine and was replaced with explanatory and certification documents,” the audit report noted.

Auditors also found that there were irregularities in relief operations that were documented.

Irregularities include master lists not bearing agency certification; relief distribution sheets not bearing the same names as on the master lists; only partial information on individuals who received the relief items; duplication of entries and submissions of documents that did not comply with those prescribed for Relief for Indigents and Individuals in Crises and Emergencies.

“The use of different documentary requirements resulted in inconsistent application of established procedures and reduced assurance on the completeness, accuracy and verifiability of beneficiary records and the propriety of relief distributions,” the COA said.

A copy of the report was submitted on Aug. 28 to the office of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, the concurrent chairperson of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.