CoA blows whistle on SC’s unliquidated cash advances

The Commission on Audit’s (CoA) 2025 annual audit report identified compliance issues involving the Supreme Court’s liquidation of P417.25 million in cash advances (CAs) distributed to justices and court officials.

Aside from payroll advances, the report said cash advances were also granted to special disbursing officers (SDOs) for special purpose and time-bound undertakings, as well as to officers and employees for local and foreign travel.

The report identified 706 unliquidated cash advances, including some dating back 12 years.

The audit was released on 21 October on CoA’s official website, a day after the SC ruled the 2024 and 2025 budgets of the Marcos administration unconstitutional and flagged certain provisions of the 2026 General Appropriations Act.

State auditors said delays were mainly attributable to accountable officers’ failure to submit liquidation reports or submit them on time.

Some deficiencies were also due to delays in processing, verifying and recording liquidations by the high court’s Finance and Accounting divisions.

CoA’s analysis found that 463 cash advances amounting to P276.35 million remained unliquidated because two SDOs had not submitted the required reports. Most of the advances were granted in 2023 and 2024.

Systemic weaknesses

One officer reportedly cited a medical condition and heavy workload in requesting a 90-day extension to complete the liquidation. CoA, however, noted that some deficiencies predated the medical condition and remained unresolved, classifying them as a “repeat finding.”

The other SDO attributed the problems to delays in liquidation reports from various offices, some of which submitted incomplete documentation when seeking additional cash advances.

“Based on the foregoing explanations, our analysis of the cash advance transactions of the two SDOs, confirm numerous instances of successive or overlapping cash advances granted without prior liquidation of earlier advances,” CoA said.

“These cash advances were released on a recurring and continuous basis, with new grants made despite outstanding balances from previous transactions,” it added.

CoA said the findings pointed to systemic weaknesses in enforcing liquidation policies and ensuring timely submission of reports.

The Supreme Court has taken steps to address the deficiencies and had liquidated P154 million in cash advances as of 13 April.