Former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II denied any hand in the questionable transactions within the Department of Justice (DOJ) discovered by the Commission on Audit (COA) which reportedly happened during his administration as justice secretary.
“I have no participation whatsoever in the transactions which is the subject matter of the Annual Audit Report released by the Commission on Audit (COA),” Aguirre said in a statement released on Saturday, May 26.
“No signature was ever required of the undersigned in connection with the said transactions,” he added.
Aguirre made the denial following the release of the 2017 COA report that showed the discovery of three unauthorized bank accounts used to “park” government funds and released salaries without supporting documents.
Unliquidated funds totalling to Php65.68 million were distributed among the three accounts in the Land Bank of the Philippines.
The law, however, states that unused government funds should be reported and deposited to the Bureau of Treasury regardless of their source.
Aguirre said he had no involvement in the issue regarding the unauthorized bank accounts, as they are “handled primarily by the Financial Service, from the Budget and Accounting Divisions and under their Director IV.
He added that the DOJ does not have an assistant secretary or undersecretary for finance.
Aguirre, however, said that officers during his time in the DOJ explained that the bank accounts are needed to ensure that employees’ salaries would be released on time.
“This would ensure that there will be no case that payment of salaries will be delayed. At any rate, all balances of the ATM payroll account are utilized for the payment of salaries and emoluments of officials and employees, in the main office and in the regions,” he said.
He also said that all unliquidated and unused DOJ funds were reported to the National Treasury by the end of the year.
The former justice secretary said that the COA is only asking for supporting documents, denying claims that unutilized money were transferred to certain beneficiaries.
