The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA), an attached agency to the Department of Tourism, over glaring discrepancies in its accounts and transactions, even as COA also expressed an adverse opinion on the fairness of PRA’s financial statements.
In its annual audit reports for 2022 and 2021, the COA noted some eight major discrepancies.
One, “Visa Deposits (VDs) and Interest Payable (IP) accounts totaling P 19,851.760 million could not be ascertained due to the unaccounted discrepancy of P 225.760 million, compared to the balances of its contra assets accounts totaling P 19,625.819 million.”
Two, “Interest on visa deposits account with balance of P 239.576 million was understated by P 35.293 million with the corresponding overstatement of the interest income for the same amount in view of the interest earned by the retirees’ VDs deposited/invested to the DBP that was partly shared with the PRA.”
Three, “the balances of the Deferred Tax Asset (DTA) and the Deferred Tax liability (DTL) accounts totaling P 1,584.492 million and P 1,322.609 million were overstated by P 58.672 million and P 45.279 million.”
Four, “Accounts Receivable (AR) account with carrying amount of P 66.083 million had a net understatement of P 5.389 million.”
Five, “prior period adjustment amounting to P 49.094 million was erroneously credited to Impairment Loss (IL) account instead of the RE account which was inconsistent with Paragraphs 8, 42 and 34 of PAS 8 resulting in the understatement of both accounts by P 49.094 million.”
Six, “the fair presentation of the balance of the Cash and Cash Equivalent account totaling P 314.976 million as of December 31, 2022 could not be established due to the net variance of P 59.980 million between the balances per books and confirmed bank balances.”
Seven, “the Comparative Financial Statements for CYs 2022 and 2021 were not restated due to the absence of details or breakdown of prior period adjustments reflected under the RE account totaling P 16.756 million.”
Eight, “the reliability of the balances of three asset and three liability accounts having total balances of P 20,980.290 million and P 21,237.132 million, respectively, as at December 31, 2022 could not be ascertained in the absence off Subsidiary Ledgers (SLs) to support their General Ledger balances.”
As it is, the total amount of discrepancies incurred could roughly run to some Php419.487 million, excluding yet the unascertained asset and liability account balances as of December 31, 2022.
In view of these discrepancies, the COA has instructed the Financial Management Division (FMD) of the PRA to expedite and exert all efforts to reconcile the balances, make necessary adjustments on over- and understatements, explain and rectify the said discrepancies, formulate written accounting policies and guidelines on recording of PRA’s transactions, and submit an accomplished Agency Action Plan.
The PRA’s Financial Management Division (FMD) is under the Finance and Administrative Services Department (FASD) headed by Mr. Philip Moreno as Department Manager.
The PRA, currently headed by Atty. Bienvenido K. Chy as General Manager and CEO, is a government owned and controlled corporation mandated to develop and promote the Philippines as a retirement haven and attract foreign retirees worldwide.
Already on its 38th year of existence, the PRA is touted as a foreign currency revenue generator for the country as sourced from SRRV (Special Resident Retiree’s Visa) dollar deposits of its retiree-members.
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