State auditors in a 2021 report flagged the Office of the Vice President under former vice president Leni Robredo for hiring a private legal counsel.
The Commission on Audit said that the office does not need a legal consultant as it created its own legal affairs division.
“In view of the lack of written conformity and acquiescence of the solicitor general and the written concurrence of COA, and despite having legal officers, payments made to the legal consultant are considered irregular and unnecessary expenditures,” the COA report read.
In response, the OVP during the term of Robredo said that the legal consultant worked as a “policy adviser” and was not involved in legal affairs.
COA’s report came after the Robredo-led OVP obtained the highest audit rating for four straight years.
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According to a circular by COA released in April 1986, government agencies are prohibited to hire private lawyers without the approval of the commission and the Office of the Solicitor General.
The circular also stated that government agencies and local government units are not allowed to use public funds to pay for the services of a private legal counsel or law firm.
“Accordingly, it is hereby directed that, henceforth, the payment out of public funds of retainer fees to private law practitioners who are so hired or employed without the prior written conformity and acquiescence of the Solicitor General or the Government Corporate Counsel, as the case may be, as well as the written concurrence of the Commission on Audit shall be disallowed in audit and the same shall be a personal liability of the officials concerned,” the circular read.
Public funds used to pay the contracted lawyers are “disallowed” or must be refunded.
Other agencies flagged
Throughout the years, it is not only the OVP that was flagged due to this practice.
DILG
In COA’s 2020 report, the Department of the Interior and Local Government was flagged by the commission after contracting two private lawyers which the department paid with retainer fees.
PCOO
In the same year, the Presidential Communications Operations Office was also flagged by the state auditors for contracting private workers, including a lawyer, which the PCOO said acted as the agency’s prosecutor.
Ilocos Norte
There is also a case wherein a local government unit has been flagged by the COA due to this practice.
In the commission’s 2018 report, the Ilocos Norte provincial government was flagged by state auditors after hiring two private lawyers to act as legal consultants.
COA, the country’s “supreme” auditing arm, is mandated by the Constitution to scrutinize the allocation and the spending of funds by government agencies to ensure that the funds from the national budget are utilized properly.
“The Commission shall have exclusive authority… to define the scope of its audit and examination, establish the techniques and methods required therefore, and promulgate accounting and auditing rules and regulations, including those for the prevention and disallowance of irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable expenditures or uses of government funds and properties,” Article nine, D, section two, paragraph two of the Constitution said.
The results of their audits are released annually to report on matters involving public funds of government agencies and local government units.
