Drawing the line: SC limits COA’s jurisdiction over PAGCOR to BIR remittances

The Commission on Audit (COA) has limited audit jurisdiction over the Philippine Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the Supreme Court (SC) declared.

“By law, COA’s audit jurisdiction over PAGCOR is limited to the latter’s remittances to the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) as franchise tax and the National Treasury with respect to the Government’s share in its gross earnings,” read the en banc decision dated June 15 that was made public on Monday (Sept. 27).

Because of this, the SC granted the petition of former PAGCOR chairman Efraim Genuino for the issuance of a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction against the COA rulings that disallowed the the 2010 release of P2 million financial assistance to the Pleasant Village Homeowners Association (PVHA) for a flood control and drainage system project.

The SC said that it found that “COA acted with grave abuse of discretion when it exceeded its audit jurisdiction over PAGCOR.”

The high tribunal reminded that the COA Charter under Presidential Decree 1869 states that “the funds of the Corporation to be covered by the audit shall be limited to the 5% franchise tax and the 50% of the gross earnings pertaining to the Government as its share.”

“It is, thus clear that the audit conduct by COA in this case was not made in relation either the 5% franchise tax or the Government’s 50% share in its gross earnings and therefore, beyond the scope of COA’s audit authority…[T]he limitation imposed on COA’s authority to audit PAGCOR is further bolstered by the fact that there are bills in Congress that have been filed precisely to expand COA’s audit jurisdiction beyond the said franchise tax and the Government’s share in its gross earnings. By implication, these bills would have been unnecessary had COA been empowered to conduct a general audit on all of PAGCOR’s funds,” the SC said.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)