Comelec to settle P1.6-B unliquidated expenses

Citing a report from the Comelec’s Finance Department, the poll body official said the COA report is no longer accurate. (File Photo By Elmer B. Domingo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday assured that it will settle in due time liquidation reports on its expenses, which were flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said this includes liquidation reports on travel and cash advances.

“The other liquidations that are remaining are the usual ‘yung mga travel, cash advances of Commissioner, Directors…but it will be settled in due time. It’s not really a malversation issue,” Guanzon said in an interview.

“It’s because when you travel you have to liquidate your cash advances by submitting documents, boarding pass, sometimes you know some people lose their boarding passes so it takes time to reconstruct…thing like that,” she added.

Citing a report from the Comelec’s Finance Department, the poll body official said the COA report is no longer accurate.

“There have been liquidations already after that report was done by COA. So we are happy that our Finance Department has been working really hard because that used to be more than PHP5 billion and it went down to PHP1.6 billion because we are required to liquidate,” Guanzon added.

On Monday, the COA has required the poll body to immediately liquidate its cash advances amounting to over PHP1.6 billion.

The figure includes expenses in the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections totaling to PHP1.202 billion.