An online gaming of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office could cause the depletion of its funds, according to the Commission on Audit.
State auditors also warned PCSO of another depletion in its charitable fund.
First, CoA flagged PCSO’s P5.890-billion expenditures which it said were not related to charity projects and projects and yet charged to the CF of the agency.
In a 2017 audit report, the state auditors said the agency’s online Keno lottery game that involved multiple daily draw incurred deficits in its prize fund of P4.283 billion in 2016 until 2017 as of Dec. 30, 2017.
The online game had exceeded the allocated amount for prizes, and that such could result in the possible depletion of the reserve funds for the other forms of lottery games of PCSO, it said.
Based on the official website of PCSO, Keno is its fastest online lottery games with multiple daily draws with a total of 103 draws a day.
PCSO entered into a lease contract with the Total Gaming Technologies Inc. to operate Keno for 10 years, or until 2020.
CoA told PCSO to adopt new approaches or to revisit its policies and guidelines for the Keno operations.
On the other hand, PCSO assured CoA of measures being undertaken to address the deficits, such as by increasing the minimum price bet from P10 to P20 or P24, adjustment in the amount of the jackpot prize and operating hours.
Daily Keno draws operate from 7 am until midnight from Monday through Sunday.
“Otherwise, consider the possibility of discontinuing the Keno operations if it will continuously incur deficits in the prize fund which is detrimental to the stability of the consolidated prize fund,” CoA said.
The commission called the attention of PCSO for its P5.890 billion expenditures that were not related to charity projects and projects, but were charged to the agency’s charitable funds, in violation of Republic Act 1169 or the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office charter mandating that 30 percent of PCSO funds shall be set aside for health programs, medical assistance, and other charities of national character.
The Commission on Higher Education got a disbursement of P318.589 million; Bureau of Internal Revenue, P5.298 billion; PCSO charity clinic, P67.98 million for the payment of employee, and expanded medical assistance program for employees, P204.593 million. Rio N. Araja
The CoA said PCSO also had under-remittances of P4.049 billion.
