THE Commission on Audit (CoA) flagged billions of pesos in unreconciled payables, receivables and asset records at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), casting doubts over the accuracy and completeness of the agency’s 2025 financial accounts.
In its 2025 audit of PCSO’s financial transactions, the state auditor found discrepancies in the agency’s P8.052-billion Accounts Payable and P642.733-million Miscellaneous Payable — Small Town Lottery Charity Fund accounts.
CoA also found unreconciled differences of P303.501 million and P519.141 million, respectively, between the general ledger balances and their supporting aging schedules.
The audit report also noted P84.947 million in abnormal debit balances and P2.327 billion in dormant payables that had remained outstanding for more than two years without proper adjustment.
“The fair presentation of the Accounts Payable and the Miscellaneous Payable — Small Town Lottery Charity Fund accounts… could not be ascertained due to discrepancies between the general ledger balances and the corresponding supporting schedules,” auditors said, questioning the “validity, completeness, and faithful representation” of the reported liabilities.
The audit also found discrepancies in PCSO’s assets and receivables.
Of the agency’s P5.288-billion Property, Plant and Equipment account, CoA found a P587.369-million variance between physical inventory results and book records, as well as a P163.970-million discrepancy in lapsing schedules.
For PCSO’s P4.536-billion net Receivable account, auditors found a P507.254-million difference between ledger balances and aging reports, P12.606 million in abnormal negative balances, and P6.843 million in unidentified receivables carried over from previous years.
“We could not establish the faithful representation of the Property, Plant and Equipment account… due to the absence of reconciliation between the results of the physical inventory and the recorded book balances,” auditors said.
Meanwhile, unsettled audit suspensions and disallowances against PCSO totaled P2.799 billion as of year-end, consisting of P2.773 billion in notices of disallowance and P25.690 million in notices of suspension.
CoA ultimately issued a qualified opinion on the fairness of presentation of PCSO’s 2025 financial statements due to the accounting deficiencies and unreconciled balances. — Pexcel John Bacon