The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines' payments of P2.376 billion to a service provider have been tagged "doubtful" by the Commission on Audit.

 In its 2022 report, CoA revealed the accuracy and regularity of CAAP's payments to the service provider of Institutional Contract of Service personnel covering March 2020 to year-end of 2022, totaling P2.376 billion, was doubtful owing to the non-validation of the claims before payment. 

The audit showed that CAAP made payments to the service provider worth P2.376 billion from March 2020 to 31 December 2022 to accord the agency technical and non-technical support service personnel in the CAAP-Head Office and different CAAP Area Centers in the Philippines.

State auditors reported that CAAP's accountant certified that the amount claimed was proper and that supporting documents were complete.

This is despite the accounting division or AD resorted to sampling in validating the accuracy of the claims contained in the billing statements of the service provider.

 Upon inquiry, CoA found that the AD failed to verify whether the names, positions, and rates in the billing statements were authorized personnel to render service for a particular pay period or whether the positions and rates corresponding to those names matched and were accurate.

 "The AD did not validate nor monitor whether individual claims of ICOS personnel contained in the billing register were valid claims which might have already been paid in prior billings, thus, might result in double payment," CoA said.

The audit findings further revealed that the AD personnel performing the initial billing statement validation are personnel under ICOS with the service provider.

"While the concerned individual is not solely responsible for the entire validation process, it would have been more prudent for the Authority to assign different personnel to conduct the validation, considering that the claims to be paid involved the salary of the subject personnel," CoA lamented.

The auditing body raised concerns about the AD's, who were supposed to validate the payments, incognizance to respond to queries about how certain items in a particular billing statement were calculated.

According to CoA, it only shows the AD's lack of knowledge in the computation of the charges against CAAP.

Therefore, there is a risk that errors in the billings, which might have been disadvantageous to CAAP, were undetected but paid," CoA said.

However, notwithstanding the irregularities and the absence of supporting documents, CAAP's Human Resource Management Division asserted that the service provider had rendered "satisfactory services" for the CAAP-Head Office and all its Area Centers for a particular period. 

Still, CoA cast doubt on the accuracy and regularity of payments made to the service provider.

"We emphasized that before the disbursement of government funds, the AD is duty-bound to review the accuracy and validity of all claims against CAAP and ensure that these are duly supported with complete documents," it said.

Nevertheless, CoA directed CAAP to require the AD and HRMD chiefs, with its key offices to formulate a documented policy on the processing of all claims of the service.