CoA flags NTC over unused systems

The Commission on Audit has called on the National Telecommunications Commission over several equipment systems worth over P163 million which remained unutilized as of 2022 intended for the NTC’s information and communications technology projects for several offices, including in the National Capital Region.

Reports said that the equipment were purchased from 2018 to 2022.

“The objectives and expected benefits from these procured resources to assist NTC in carrying out its regulatory and quasi-judicial mandates were not fully attained,” the CoA said in its report covering 2022.

State auditors also stressed that the deficiencies in its implementation violated Section 2 of Presidential Decree 1445, or the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines, which mandates that all government resources shall be managed, expended, or utilized in accordance with law and regulations, and safeguard against loss or wastage through illegal or improper disposition.

In this case, the NTC, which has jurisdiction and control over all telecommunications services throughout the country, is the sole liable, according to CoA.

Audit findings further revealed that NTC also had an unutilized notice of cash allocations or NCA, amounting to P11,659,217.22, while NTC offices in Cordillera Administrative Region, Iloilo City, and Davao City, accounted for P752,208.37, P4,592,447.09, and P6,314,561.76, respectively.

State auditors said the lapsed NCAs in the three NTC regional offices, reverted to the National Treasury on 21 December, were attributed to improper planning and forecasting.

The NTC-CAR, however, ascribed its lapsed NCA to the delayed implementation of the Structural Cabling and Equipment for Local Area Network project, primarily programmed to be completed in the last quarter of 2022.