COA flags P366-M PPE deficiencies in PCO

The Commission on Audit flagged deficiencies in the Presidential Communications Office’s accounting of property, plant and equipment in 2025, raising concerns over the accuracy, existence, classification and accountability of assets totaling about P366 million.

State auditors cited non-existent, missing, unverified and misclassified items in the PCO’s records.

In a sample of 40 PPE items, COA found seven assets worth about P618,000 that were not presented during inspection.

“These items pertained to Communication Equipment and Information and Communication Technology Equipment (ICTE), thereby casting doubt on their completeness, serviceability, and existence as recorded in the inventory records,” the audit report said.

COA also found 51 PPE items worth P3.81 million that had not been physically verified or counted by the PCO despite being presented to the agency’s Property Section.

Auditors said they requested a verified list of the items but had not received one as of 10 April.

The audit also found duplicate entries worth P2.57 million involving office, communication and information and communication technology equipment. The PCO attributed the issue to data encoding errors and said adjustments would be made.

COA likewise flagged 366 items recorded as PPE despite falling below the P50,000 capitalization threshold.

Of these, 195 items had been assigned a nominal value of P1 each.

“Inquiry with Management disclosed that certain PPE items were assigned a nominal value of P1.00 solely to recognize the existence of properties found in stations, with the understanding that their actual values will be adjusted upon completion of the Property Section’s verification,” the report said.

COA said the failure to properly value and classify the assets resulted in overstated PPE balances and understated semi-expendable property accounts.