The submission of all reports on the status of the 30th Southeast Asian Games is expected to be done by the end of November.
Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee Chief Operating Officer Ramon “Tats” Suzara said the report would have been available sooner, but the lockdowns imposed by the government to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic slowed down the progress of this over the last 11 months.
“This pandemic has kept us from submitting this early. It’s now with the auditing firm. We can’t rush this. They need time,” said Suzara, who also revealed that there was also a delay in turning over some of the P1.461 billion fund that the PHISGOC needed to run the Games.
The last tranche of the money for the Games, which came from the Philippine Sports Commission, was turned over to the PHISGOC only last September 4.
On Wednesday, the PHISGOC turned over to the POC the 30th 2019 SEA Games Final Report Book, a 190-page hardbound book that chronicled in detail on how the Philippines regained the games’ overall championship, with 149 golds, 117 silvers and 121 bronzes, for a total of 387 medals.
“This is part of the closure of the 30th SEA Games. This is the first part. The second part is the financials. This is the evidence, this is the truth. Nandito lahat ang sacrifices ng mga athletes, coaches, technical official at iba pa,” said POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.
The turnover ceremonies, also graced by commissioner Arnold Agustin of the Philippine Sports Commission and PHISGOC Chairperson Allan Peter Cayetano, took place at the Kalayaan Hall of the SM Aura Office Towers in Taguig City.
The second group of documents with an audited financial report on the operations of the Games will be available at the end of the month.
PHISGOC’s second report will be in the hands of the POC once a prestigious international auditing firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers, is done working on the accounting of the biennial meet.
Since October, some members of the executive committee of the POC have been asking the PHISGOC to submit its report, in compliance with a tripartite agreement that the PHISGOC made with the PSC andand the POC last year.
“Tama ‘yung (PHISGOC) explanation. How can you finalize the audit report kung hindi pa tapos ‘yung last transaction—the last transaction was September 4. Hindi pa nga September 4, kasi mayroong two suppliers pa na binayaran, so siguro mga third week pa nga ng September (last transaction). So how can you finalize it na 60 days after or a year or whatever date, kung hindi pa tapos? Kahit kayo sa bahay niyo, paano makapagsara ng libro kung may babayaran pa? So, with that, hopefully one week or two weeks from now matapos na. I am not defending the PHISGOC, kasi alam ko, I know the procedures and this is one of the procedures,” said Tolentino.
