Malacañang sought to clarify how it spent a P322 million instead of the P615.3 million earlier reported in newspapers.

The Palace came up with the haphazard numbers crunching amid continued calls for official accountability for hundreds of thousands in alleged bribes it handed out to congressman allies and local government officials during a breakfast meeting called by President Arroyo in Malacañang last Oct. 11.

In a statement, Press Secretary and presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said records show that the Office of the President

had liquidated a total of P160.66 million and “adjustments” covering the period January-October 18 this year.

“These adjustments resulted in unliquidated funds totaling P454.635 million as of Oct. 18, 2007, compared to the reported P615.294 million in unliquidated funds as of December 2006,” Bunye said.

He said if the previous administration’s unliquidated funds of P132.4 million is subtracted from the sum, ”the present administration’s unliquidated funds would amount to P322.204 million.”

The remaining numbers represent P3.223 million in unliquidated advances of cash disbursing officers, P3.98 million due from officers and employees and P314.99 million from other receivables.

Bunye pointed out that newspaper reports attributed to the Commission on Audit (CoA) did not take into account the comments made by Office of the President Deputy Executive Secretary Susana Vargas in a letter submitted to CoA Chairman Guillermo Carague, through resident auditor Samuel Sison, last Sept. 4.

“Management has not been remiss in reminding the accountable officers of their responsibility to liquidate their cash advances. For those who still fail to liquidate within the prescribed period, we either withhold their salary or deduct a reasonable amount from their salary. Management has also refrained from granting additional cash advance, unless urgent and necessary, if prior years’ cash advances remain unsettled,” Vargas said in her letter.

Part of the comments made by Vargas last Sept. 4 included the P269.5 million in loans granted out of the President’s Social Fund (PSF) in 2003 and 2004 which, she said, does not lack supporting documents.

Vargas commented that funds were drawn from the PSF upon the request of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as start-up funds under the “Isang Bayan, Isang Produkto, Isang Milyon Piso,” program that was institutionalized under Executive Order 176 of 2002.

Vargas said SME beneficiaries were also informed that PSF releases were granted as soft loans, and a team was created to monitor loan payments and handle issues that may arise from the implementation of the program.

Relative to the P94.45 million unsubmitted vouchers for 2003 and 2004, Vargas said these disbursement vouchers were already submitted, including the paid vouchers for February to December 2004, of calendar years 2005 and 2006, and January to July 2007.

On donations totaling P8.8 million, Vargas said these were disbursed strictly for the purpose as specified by the donor, and other donations received for socio-economic projects were also disbursed solely for its intended purpose.

Vargas also said the transfer of fund in the amount of P112.1 million to government agencies and other non-governmental organizations were properly recorded and its reclassification entry was taken up under Journal Entry Voucher No. 2007-07-006203 dated July 31, 2007.

In her letter, Vargas said the depreciation for the Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) valued at P949.9 million were not provided since data needed in the computation were not yet available, such as the unit cost and year of acquisition.

Vargas added an appraisal committee was earlier created to determine the appraised value of the PPEs purchased from 2003 and below to conclusively compute its depreciation. Sherwin C. Olaes and Benjamin B. Pulta