Lower House assures transparency in audit amid former President Duterte's statement that Congress must be audited first
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00:00 The fallout on the rejection of the Office of the VP and DepEd's request for confidential
00:05 funds has dragged in the former president, who alleged, without any proof, that next
00:11 year's spending allocation for the House of Representatives is awash with confidential
00:16 and intelligence money.
00:18 But as our Mela Lesmora reports, the contention fell flat on its face when the House Secretary
00:25 General welcomed any audit on its books and bared the latest report on the House passing
00:31 Coa Muster.
00:34 The House leadership assured they are open for any audit in response to the statement
00:39 of former President Rodrigo Duterte that Congress should be audited first amid various issues
00:44 on government funds nowadays.
00:47 According to House Secretary General Reginald Velasco, they are in agreement with a former
00:51 chief executive that government expenditure should be transparent and fully auditable.
00:57 He reiterated the lower house has no confidential and intelligence funds and all line items
01:02 in their budget are subject to regular accounting and auditing regulations.
01:07 In fact, in the latest report of the Commission on Audit, the House was found to have had
01:11 neither disallowances nor notices of suspension or charge.
01:15 In short, they passed the Coa audit.
01:17 They even presented evidence for good measure.
01:21 The House Committee on Appropriations also issued a clarificatory statement on the controversy.
01:27 "The Congress has no confidential funds.
01:31 What they say is that 1.6 billion is extraordinary expenses.
01:36 The extraordinary is fully auditable, which is different from confidential.
01:41 And the Congress has no confidential.
01:44 The extraordinary is like the expenses during calamities.
01:51 So that's an example of extraordinary expense."
01:55 In short, that's fake news.