Monday, November 3, 2014, Business Insight COA orders GOCCs to refund P815M invalid allowances, benefits : BY PETER J. @. TABINGO OFFICIALS and employees of 23 govern- mentowned-or-controlled corporations (GOCCs) have been ordered by the Com- mission on Audit (COA) to retum illegal allowances, benefits and incentives amount- ing to P815.422 million paid to them in 2013, ‘The 456-page 2013 Annual Financial Report (AFR) on GOCCs named the Local Water Utilities Administration G.WUA) at the top of the list with P436,183 million questioned stipends. COA officially released the report last October 20 although copies were already submitted to the Office ‘of the President, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives on September 29, 2014. ‘Personnel allowances, benefits, bonuses, incentives (were) granted or paid without legal basis,” auditors noted in the report Based on the said document, the top 10 GOCCs according to the amount of unau- thorized allowances paid were: 1) Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA)- P436.183 million 2) Duty Free Philippines Corp. (DFPC) 141.272 million 3) Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag- Ibig Fund) - P130.375 million 4) National Housing Authority (NHA) - 48,708 million 5) Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administra- tion (OWWA)- P14.36 million 6) Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)- P11.713 million 7) Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewer- age System (MWSS) - P9.921 million '8) National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) =P5.739 million 9) National Power Corp. (NPC)- P4.704 million 10) Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA)} 2.505 million Last year's questionable allowances bf GOCC? are actually 64.55 lower than th P2.313 billion that was reported by thd COA in 2012, i ‘Also included inthe 2013 AFR on GOCE were the DBP Management Corp., DDB Data Center Inc. (DCD, intercontinent Broadcasting Corp. (IBC), Philippine Cro Insurunce Corp. CIC), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. CPDIO), Philippine Minin Development Corp. (PMDC), Phlippin National Oi! Company - Exploration Corp, @PNOCEO, and PNOC Renewables Corp, Philippine Postal Savings Bank inc. PSL Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRAY Power Sector and Liabilities Management Corp. PSALM), Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Heath Car Q@TAHC) and Veterans Federation of th Philippines (VPP).