The Commission on Audit (COA) reported the National Youth Commission (NYC) had overspent by P1.4 million for seminars, training, and food expenses last year.
COA’s annual audit report on NYC revealed the P1.4 million was spent in:
- overspending P86,500 for employees’ costumes for the launch of the 46th Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program (SSEAYP) which include Barong with pants and Filipiniana gown;
- P974 million worth of payment for food, venue, and accommodation of NYC employees during the conduct of 10 days Pre-Departure training for SSEAYP delegation which included expenses for members of Secretariat and some NYC officials and employees who were not involved in the activity and are residing within Metro Manila;
- inclusion of extra packs of meals worth P337,500 or P250.00 per day for 17 NYC employees even on Saturdays and Sundays when there were no listed activities for the day; and
- spending P56,500 more than the allowed limit for the participation of NYC officials and employees in conventions, seminars, and similar non-training gatherings conducted by non-government organizations or private institutions, on top of these participants shortly leaving NYC after such training.
Also read: COA flags PCOO for P1.8M meal expenses in meetings
COA reveals NYC overspent budget in 2019
NYC meanwhile explained the overspending on costumes, saying the P1,500 per year per person limit is only applied to local activities and does not cover international events such as SSEAYP.
COA agreed that SSEAYP is an international activity but insisted that such expensive costumes can be dispensed with “since the costume was used simply for the introduction of the 27 participating youth and one national leader and no international delegates or counterpart were present.”
NYC also explained the P974 million worth of food and accommodation expenses, saying Secretariat Head and Members, including the facilitators, needed to stay in the venue “for the training needs and extensive preparation should be taken intently and seriously.”
COA, however, did not accept the explanation citing some occupants are not involved in the activity and whose houses are within Metro Manila, hence should not be accommodated by the hotels.
“Should there be a necessity for the presence of the Secretariat to attend or supervise the need of the delegates, one or two members were allowed to stay since there were facilitators/coordinators who managed the training activities. We also noted that the issued Office Order was not well-defined as to who among the Secretariat is in charge of a particular chore e.g, Committee on Program Activities, Committee on Physical Facilities, etc,” COA said.