Fraud busted

PSC uncovers payroll anomaly

The PSC will never waver in its duty to protect the interest of its stakeholders and the Filipino people

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after uncovering a payroll fraud allegedly initiated by one of its employees.

In a letter addressed to NBI officer-in-charge Eric Distor that was obtained by Daily Tribune, PSC executive director Merlita Ibay identified an employee named Paul Michael Padua Ignacio of the personnel department as the mastermind behind the payroll-padding scheme that reportedly netted him up to P14 million over the past five years.

Ibay said Landbank of the Philippines Century Park Hotel branch assistant vice president Marietta Cabusao called her attention after noticing “unusual payroll transactions” credited to the account of Ignacio.

Cabusao told Ibay that the payroll account of Ignacio was put in their alert system when they started to monitor large and aggregated transactions.

Ignacio is in-charge of preparing the payroll of over 1,000 members of the national squad who are receiving monthly allowances and salaries ranging from P10,000 to P45,000 for athletes and P25,000 to P60,000 for coaches.

The PSC launched an initial investigation and found out that Ignacio has been adding the names of athletes and coaches who are no longer qualified to allowance

and salaries to the monthly payroll that was forwarded by the PSC Assistance and Coordination Division.

Then, he would put his own bank account next to the names of unqualified coaches and athletes so that the fund would be transferred to him.

“(The) said actions, if true, are highly atrocious and the unscrupulous individuals involved in these activities must be immediately apprehended and prosecuted to the full force of the law,” Ibay said in her letter dated 10 July 2020.

“With this, we kindly request the NBI to immediately conduct an investigation on this mater and perform all actions necessary in order to avoid further damage to the PSC.”

We are now tracing all records available and we are digging those from past years, which possibly began around 2015.

PSC sources said NBI agents had already apprehended Ignacio and is being prepared for inquest today. A press conference would also be held where the PSC and the NBI would come up with a joint statement.

A PSC insider suspects that there are other PSC employees involved in this fraud.

“We are now tracing all records available and we are digging those from past years, which possibly began around 2015,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity so that the PSC-NBI press briefing will not be preempted.

“We are looking at the possibility that other personnel handling the records of athletes and coaches might also be linked in this anomaly.”

PSC officer-in-charge Ramon Fernandez said they are now acting accordingly in close coordination with the NBI.

They are also studying the legal steps that they would take depending on the outcome of their investigation.

“We have already sought the help of the NBI on this matter so we cannot comment further. Suffice it to say that there were red flags which alerted us, and so we acted accordingly,” Fernandez said, who is leading the PSC after chairman William “Butch” Ramirez filed a leave of absence two weeks ago.

“The PSC will never waver in its duty to protect the interest of its stakeholders and the Filipino people.”