The Commission on Audit has admonished the Department of Health for maintaining an aggregate balance of P97.17 million in its bank accounts instead of depositing the money with the Bureau of the Treasury.

In its 2022 report, the CoA found that the DoH Central Office, three of its health development and five of its operating units continuously maintained balances totaling P97,167,327 in their depository banks instead of with the BTr pursuant to the 2022 General Appropriations Act.

The CoA said the DoH was not compliant with Section 4 of the law that mandated all fees, charges, assessments, and other receipts or revenues collected by national government departments, as a general rule, shall be deposited in the National Treasury as income for the General Fund.

The continuous maintenance of the balances, the CoA added, also ran counter to Paragraph 2.1 of the DoF-DBM-CoA Permanent Committee Joint Circular No. 4-2012 that requires that all income collected by agencies of the government by virtue of the provisions of law, orders and regulations shall be deposited in the National Treasury, and shall accrue to the unappropriated surplus of the General Fund of the government.

Moreover, item 5.5.1 of the joint circular requires the immediate transfer to the National Treasury of the cash balances in the unauthorized accounts.

The audit found that the DoH had unauthorized cash in bank accounts, inactive bank accounts, unnecessary special and trust funds, idle or dormant cash, and deficiencies in petty cash funds in its various central offices, health development, and operating units to the tune of P97,167,327 in violation of the pertinent laws and regulations.

"The failure to remit the aforementioned cash balances to the BTr is contrary to the above-cited law and regulations and deprived the National Government of the use of idle cash deposited in AGDB (Authorized Government Depository Bank) for other priority projects and defeated the purpose of the government in maximizing the use of its financial resources," CoA said.

The auditing body ordered Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa to require heads of the central offices concerned to immediately remit the unauthorized, unnecessary, idle, dormant cash balances and collected fees to the BTr in compliance with the 2022 GAA.

Likewise, the CoA said Herbosa should direct the chief accountant of the DoH Central Office to initiate an inventory and thorough analysis of the cash accounts and balances and immediately close the dormant, inactive, and unnecessary accounts.

Meanwhile, the heads of the health development and operating units concerned told auditors they would comply with the recommendations and that they had already coordinated with the BTr for the remittance of the cash balances.

"Some are currently conducting verifications and reconciliations with their records, after which the necessary adjustments and correcting entries will be made," they said.