The House of Representatives has tossed to the Senate a bill requiring that all the funds and transactions of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) including revenues, income and expenditures, be examined by the Commission on Audit (CoA).
House Bill No. 5605, authored by Batangas Rep. Hermilando O. Mandanas, passed the House last Feb. 24 and was transmitted to the Senate on March 4.
The bill seeks to amend Presidential Decree No. 1869 issued by former president Ferdinand E. Marcos, which limits audits to 5% of the state gambling outfit’s franchise tax and 50% of gross earnings, which constitutes the government’s share.
Mr. Mandanas said the exemption of Pagcor from audits runs against the 1987 Constitution, which states that “no law shall be passed exempting any entity of the government or its subsidiaries in any guise whatever, or investment of public funds, from the jurisdiction of CoA”.
“The Charter also states that CoA shall have the power, authority and duty to examine, audit and settle all accounts … [of] government-owned or -controlled corporations … on a post-audit basis,” he said in a statement.
Pagcor spokesman Edward F. King, however, said the bill was pointless, as the state firm is already subject to regular auditing by the CoA.
“Our books and records have always been subjected to full CoA audit. In fact all our branches have CoA auditors, all under a CoA resident auditor holding office at our headquarters,” he said.
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