Government intel spending up P2.03 billion in 2019 – COA

MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration’s confidential, intelligence and extraordinary fund (CIF) spending went up to P13.466 billion in 2019 or an increase of P2.03 billion compared with that of 2018, according to the Commission on Audit (COA)’s 2019 Annual Financial Report (AFR).

The COA’s AFR showed that intelligence fund expenses accounted for P6.12 billion, extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses reached P4.77 billion and confidential expenses amounted P2.57 billion.

The state auditor’s report pointed to Congress as the biggest spender of CIF in 2019 with P3.98 billion, followed by the Department of National Defense or DND (P3.087 billion) and the Office of the President or OP (P2.41 billion).

Other top spenders of CIF were the Department of the Interior and Local Government (P1.794 billion), other executive offices (P752.7 million), Department of Information and Communications Technology (P307 million), Department of Justice (P279 million), the judiciary (P268 million), Department of Finance (P90 million) and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (P82.674 million).

The report said Congress, DND and OP accounted for 70.4 percent of the P13.4 billion worth of CIF fund disbursed.

Meanwhile, the rest of the agencies not included in the top 10 highest CIF spenders only accounted for P411.6 million or 3.06 percent of the P13.4 billion spent.

State auditors also enumerated other agencies with least CIF spent: the Presidential Communications Operations Office (P2.9 million), Department of Energy  (P3.56 million), Commission on Elections (P4.6 million), Civil Service Commission (P4.9 million), Department of Tourism (P5.1 million), Department of Public Works and Highways (P5.3 million), Department of Budget and Management (P6.6 million), Department of Agrarian Reform (P7.27 million) and Department of Science and Technology (P7.35 million).

The COA said the Office of Vice President Leni Robredo was the lowest spender with P547,000.