'Corruption pervasive under Aquino administration'

MANILA, Philippines - Former national treasurer Leonor Briones claimed that corruption has worsened and is pervasive as ever under the Aquino administration.

Briones said that the audit report of the Commission on Audit (COA) regarding losses in the national treasury of P101 billion during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also showed that portion of the unaccounted funds was spent during the term of President Aquino.

She told a forum in Manila last Tuesday that it is unfair to blame the Arroyo administration for losses incurred based on the 2011 audit report because it is also clear that a significant portion could be attributed to the present administration.

Briones said contrary to claims that corruption has been curbed, the report shows that it is still pervasive, if not much worse than the previous administration since irregularities in the disbursements of funds increased during the Aquino administration as could be seen in Tables II.4-A and II.4-B of the COA report.

She explained that in accounting parlance, an audit finding that is termed as unqualified means there is no anomaly, while a qualified finding means there is an anomaly.

In Table II.4-A of the audit report pertaining to the national level, it found that the number of unqualified findings had decreased from 52 and 54 unqualified findings in 2009 and 2010, respectively to just 44 in 2011. This means that in 2011 there had been lesser agencies that have been found to be honest and regular in the disbursements of their funds.