The Philippine Sports Commission has requested for a fraud audit that will look into the financial assistance extended to the Philippine Olympic Committee and national sports associations from 2010 to 2016.
The PSC board has also passed a resolution also compelling POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco to return the amount of P27 million assistance that had already been disallowed by the Commission on Audit.
The resolution, dated Tuesday, was signed by Chairman Butch Ramirez and commissioners Arnold Agustin, Ramon Fernandez and Charles Maxey. Commissioner Celia Kiram hasn’t signed the resolution because she is still in Turkmenistan overseeing athletes in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
In a letter to lawyer Blesildo Sabaldan of the COA’s Fraud Audit Office, Fernandez asked for a probe on the PSC’s transactions in the previous administration, because he found “many of the transactions/disbursements… highly questionable and still unliquidated for several years.”
The move is seen as a followup to the twin protests rallies against the current POC leadership.