 reported that the Department of Justice had P123.8 million in unliquidated confidential funds in 2015, with only a portion of the cash advances properly liquidated. The audit also cited violations involving subsequent cash advances.){kind=link}
Former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima may have secured a seat in the Senate, but according to the Commission on Audit (COA), she left the Department of Justice (DOJ) with P123.8 million in confidential funds that remained unliquidated.
In its 2015 Annual Audit Report, posted on the COA’s official website, the agency stated that the amount represented unliquidated cash advances released to Special Disbursing Officers (SDOs) for confidential funds during the year.
The COA’s verification and analysis showed that from January 1 to December 31, 2015, the DOJ released a total of P173,755,064.92 in confidential fund cash advances to SDOs. However, only P49,943,081.57 had been properly liquidated.
As a result, P123,811,983.35 remained unliquidated at the time of the audit.
The audit also found that some SDOs received additional cash advances even though they had not yet submitted liquidation reports for their previous advances. The COA noted that this practice violated Section 6.1.5 of COA–Department of Budget and Management Joint Circular No. 2015-01, which prohibits the release of subsequent cash advances until earlier ones have been fully accounted for.