Update on “BREAKING NEWS: COA Releases 2009 Audit Report on the University of the Philippines System”: The sub-article: “1. On the issue of conflicts of interest among ranking university officials and university-affiliated foundations” has been completed.

Editor's note: The sub-article: “1. On the issue of conflicts of interest among ranking university officials and university-affiliated foundations” has been completed.

This sub-article is a component of the larger news story, “BREAKING NEWS: COA Releases 2009 Audit Report on the University of the Philippines System”

The sub-article reads in part:

“As there was no information given with regard to the officers of the UP Foundation, Inc., available data gathered disclosed that in its amended by-laws, the President of the UP System is the Chairman and President of the U.P. Foundations, Inc. In addition, the Chancellors of its four autonomous units and three members of the Board of Regents sit on the Board of Trustees. Likewise, per inquiry, its current executive director is a professor of the University” (emphasis supplied by Diliman Diary).

"It appears that the creation of these Foundations is tainted with legal infirmity as an apparent conflict of interest existed considering that some of its officers are at the same time officials of the University, thus, transactions and dealings entered into by these public officers channeled through the Foundations are within the ambit of the public’s right to be informed as mandated by the Constitution consistent with the policy on transparency in government affairs."

To read the entire sub-article, please click on this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/11/breaking-news-coa-releases-2009-audit_05.html 

Coming next on: “BREAKING NEWS: COA Releases 2009 Audit Report on the University of the Philippines System” is the next sub-article:

“2. On the basis of a complaint filed by the All U.P. Workers Union, COA cast doubts on the legality and validity of the 25-year lease contract entered into by and between the UP, through U.P. Manila-PGH, and the Mercado General Hospital, Inc. (MGHI), for the conversion and development of the Philippine General Hospital Dispensary historical three-storey concrete building into the Faculty Medical Arts Building (FMAB).”

This subsequent sub-article, which is still being finalized, may be accessed at the same link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/11/breaking-news-coa-releases-2009-audit_05.html 

We apologize to our readers for the lag in completing the entire article. The Diliman Diary reportage on the 2009 COA report is arduous and is being completed stage-by-stage, in view of the sheer complexity of the document. Additionally, the Diliman Diary is an all-volunteer effort, with all the limitations being placed on such an enterprise. In this regard, we will soon be be formulating guidelines for accepting volunteers and disseminating them here.

The Diliman Diary also in the process of completing the remaining sub-articles of another major article, enitled, “State Universities and Colleges are Haunted by COA's 2009 Audits into their Financial Expenditures (A Series of Articles co-located on one (1) continuously updated link).” This article may be accessed at this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/11/state-universities-and-colleges-are.html

It is our intention in these articles to cut through the mass of information and detail contained in the COA reports and to make them easily digestible to the general public and policy makers for the sole purpose of rectifying possible errors within our system of government. This forms part of our blogger's advocacy which is to press for good government within the scope of the community we cover (that is, initially, the Diliman area). Thank you all very much.