COA holds ex-PCGG officers answerable for P190-M loss in property gross sales

The choice stems from the sale of a number of properties in Baguio and Parañaque from 2012 to 2014

MANILA. Philippines – The Fee on Audit (COA) has held 5 former officers of the Presidential Fee on Good Authorities (PCGG), together with former PCGG chair Juan Andres Bautista, answerable for the sale of three sequestered properties at undervalued costs between 2012 and 2014, leading to authorities losses of over P190.1 million.

COA rejected the petitions of Bautista, ex-commissioner and bids and awards committee (BAC) chair Richard Amurao, ex-commissioner and BAC vice chair Nelson Acebo, belongings administration division officer-in-charge Alfredo dela Paz, and fee secretary Ronald Chua in a 16-page en banc resolution launched on October 24. Dela Paz and Chua additionally served as members of the BAC.

It stemmed from the sale of a number of properties from 2012 to 2014.

One was the December 11, 2012 sale of the two,677-square-meter Banaue Inn Compound alongside Baguio-Itogon Highway in Pucsusan, Baguio Metropolis, to Love Improvement Company for P10 million.

One other concerned the IRC Mapalad Property – 4,038 sq. meters of prime land on the nook of Roxas Boulevard and Librada Avelino Road in Parañaque Metropolis. It modified palms on June 14, 2013, offered to Ciriaco Realty and Improvement Company for greater than P247 million.

Then got here the JY Campos Compound, a 17,516-square-meter property on Outlook Drive in Pucsusan, Baguio Metropolis. Auditors mentioned it was offered on July 25, 2014, to SMI Improvement Company for P160 million.

State auditors questioned the sale costs, prompting a brand new appraisal by the COA’s Technical Providers Workplace (TSO). The COA later issued notices of cost after the TSO discovered that each one three properties had been offered for a lot lower than their market worth.

Based on the COA’s evaluation, the Banaue Inn Compound was value P16.5 million, or P6.5 million greater than its promoting worth. The IRC Mapalad Property was valued at P306.888 million, which was P59.778 million above the quantity it was offered for. The JY Campos Compound, in the meantime, was assessed at P283.829 million, a distinction of P123.829 million from its market worth.

State auditors mentioned the federal government misplaced P190.107 million due to undervaluation.

The previous PCGG officers had maintained they’d adopted correct procedures and secured the required approval from the Privatization Council. They denied promoting the properties beneath market worth, saying they relied on unbiased value determinations and sale figures accredited by the council.

Additionally they argued that the belongings had gone via a number of failed biddings earlier than being offered, which nonetheless generated income for the federal government.

The COA cluster director, nevertheless, identified that there mustn’t have been any main discrepancies within the appraisal outcomes if the PCGG and the TSO had used the identical valuation strategies.

“As proven from the NCs (notices of cost) and the corresponding TSO stories, the numerous undervaluation of the topic properties was the principle foundation for the issuance of the identical. It’s value noting that the TSO stories have been completed independently and achieved in accordance with usually accepted requirements in property valuation by licensed appraisers,” learn a part of the COA en banc resolution.

The COA en banc famous that the TSO appraisal was performed a number of years after the PCGG had set its pricing, saying the later valuation ought to have been decrease “because the market values of land are likely to go greater and never the other.”

“Because of these unexplained discrepancies or undervaluation of the belongings offered as decided by the COA TSO, the NCs must be affirmed,” it mentioned. “Petitioners can’t take refuge within the presumption of fine religion and of regularity within the efficiency of official capabilities. As officers who have been answerable for the undervalued promoting worth of the topic properties, they need to be held answerable for the under-collection of mentioned authorities revenues.” – Rappler.com