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Sen. Hontiveros hits OVP for unauthorized transfer of funds

Paulo Gaborni September 5, 2023 at 03:22 PM

Senator Risa Hontveros questions the reported unauthorized transfer of funds into the Office of the Vice President last 2022.

In a statement sent to media on September 4, the Senator demands accountability as the transfer of allocations in 2022 to confidential funds of the OVP didn’t exist that year. The P221.4 million OVP budget also included the P125 million confidential fund that the office is said to have spent in just 19 days.

“If the reported reports are true and correct, someone should be held accountable for the unauthorized and clearly illegal transfer of funds to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in 2022. These serious allegations and reports demand immediate investigation.” Hontiveros said.

Vice President Sara Duterte stated during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance on the planned P2.3 billion budget of the OVP for 2024 that the OVP requested confidential funds from the Office of the President in August 2022.

She claimed that in December of that year, the OVP got the confidential funds.

However, Hontiveros couldn’t see how this confidential fund could add to a General Appropriations Act item that didn’t exist.

“How can they validly transfer funds to an allocation that doesn’t exist in the first place?” Hontiveros asked.

“The OVP does not have a “confidential fund” in the year 2022 that government funds can be transferred to. In the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2022, there were zero items for any confidential funds earmarked for the Office of the Vice President. What is this, Ghost? There’s a ghost transfer?” the senator further asked.

While the law permits the President and certain government departments to realign or transfer their appropriations as “savings”, Hontiveros stated that “these savings cannot augment a non-existent item in the GAA.”

“A reminder to everyone: ‘Confidential funds’ are not cheat codes which can be used to violate existing laws and regulations blatantly,” the senator said.

Photo: Sen. Risa Hontiveros FB

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