Senator JV Ejercito called on the Commission on Audit (CoA) to conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged involvement of its resident auditors in the multibillion-peso anomalous flood control projects nationwide.

Ejercito asked CoA chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba if the agency had launched its own probe into resident auditors assigned to district flagged for irregularities, particularly in Bulacan and Mindoro.

“This is not only the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), but of course they are the primary agency that implemented these substandard or ghost projects. There was also someone in the Department of Budget and Management and also someone in CoA,” Ejercito said in Filipino.

“I hope you would investigate, and it has also come from DPWH officials in the first district and engineering office (that) the DBM and CoA are involved in their collusion,” he added.

Ejercito stressed that while no formal charges have been filed, auditors who failed to act on the red flags should be held accountable.

Cordoba assured Ejercito the CoA’s Fraud Audit Office was already investigating the matter and that initial findings would be submitted to the committee once the internal process is completed.

Ejercito likewise raised concerns about reports implicating CoA Commissioner Mario Lipana in the anomalous flood control projects.

Lipana was mentioned twice in connection with the flood control kickback scheme in Bulacan — once by former DPWH district engineer Henry Alcantara and again by former undersecretary Robert Bernardo.

At the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on 25 September, it was confirmed that Lipana had left the country.