Amid successive storms that devastated the country and poverty of many Filipinos, some 36 labor attaches had been exposed to have spent P26 million, a portion coming from collections in their countries of assignment, for “extravagant entertainment.” Some of them even deposited big amounts to their own personal bank accounts. The Commission on Audit (COA) revealed Monday that the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) offices abroad spent the money for entertaining foreign visitors, dining out in expensive restaurants and buying “tokens” or gifts for dignitaries and other people who may have or do not have working relationships with them. COA Supervising Auditor Fatima Rafer disclosed that DOLE spent a total of P26,894,396.95 for various forms of entertainments in its financial report for 2008. This has been happening despite Labor Secretary Marianito Roque's constantly reminding the labor attaches to be frugal, “especially on entertainment expenses.” “Expenses for entertainment incurred were without restraint, judiciousness and economy and exceeded the bounds of propriety,” COA said in the 2008 audit examination report released recently. COA further divulged that a “significant amount” of labor offices' collections are retained in the names of several labor attaches. “This is a practice that is contrary to existing rules and regulations,” the COA report cited. COA also discovered that some labor attaches deposited the labor offices' collections to their personal accounts such as Reynaldo Gopez, P9.3 million; Buliok Nilong in Jeddah, P8.9 million; Manuel Roldan in Rome, P1.6 million and Jaime Gimenez, P1 million, among others. “The materiality of the collections involved does not justify the retention of collections in the personal accounts of Labor Attaches. The attendant risk of misuse or loss in allowing the holding of such huge amounts of funds outweighs the expenses that may be incurred or time that may be wasted in the process,” Rafer stated in her audit. Audit examiners further reported they failed to retrieve the amount of collections deposited to the personal account of labor attache' Corazon Alfonso who died two years ago. It was also stated in the COA report that Gopez and seven retired labor attaches were able to come home to the Philippines but COA failed to get back the money they deposited to their personal bank accounts.
