PAGCOR urged to consider closing Filipino-Manila casino

The Commission on Audit (COA) has shared its worries over the P2.113 billion aggregate net losses incurred by a Manila casino being run by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

COA also scolded the state-run gaming firm for non-disclosure of the financial condition of the gambling center, Manila Bulletin reports.

The Commission noted serious lapses in PAGCOR’s implementation of the school building project dubbed “Matuwid na Daan sa Silid Aralan,” noting that 457 classrooms financed through a P714.496 donation by the firm have not been completed.

“Aggregate net losses of P2.113 billion incurred by CF (Casino Filipino) Manila Bay for five consecutive years cast doubt on its ability to continue as a going concern and the said condition was not disclosed in the Notes to Financial Statement (FS ) as required,” COA stated in the recently-released 2018 annual audit report for PAGCOR.

The Casino Filipino-Manila Bay has not been earning profit for a five year period, from 2014 to 2018, COA revealed.

The losses were listed as follows: 2014 – P352 million; 2015 – P458 million; 2016 – P386.6 million; 2017 – P413.5 million; and 2018 – P502.7 million.

“As presented in Table 9, the existence of adverse financial conditions for five consecutive years of the CF-Manila Bay casts doubt on its ability to operate as a going concern,” COA said.

The audit agency urged PAGCOR to “devise realistic development plans and strategies to generate sufficient funds” or consider closure of the CF-Manila Bay to “avert continuous losses.”

Reacting to the COA observation, the PAGCOR management blamed the “disintegration of the income-generating satellites from CF-Pavilion, opening of competing integrated resorts and gradual reduction in the number of table games and slot machines” for the deficit.

In the same audit report, COA asked PAGCOR to coordinate with the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Education to immediately act on the deficiencies in the implementation of the school building program of the state-run firm.

Auditors revealed that aside from the non-completion of 457 classrooms in 2018, PAGCOR has also failed to liquidate the remaining balance of P1.189 billion in funds it released to implementing agencies.

They also revealed that there has been “deficient monitoring of the implementation of 211 classrooms” that resulted in the failure of implementing agencies to complete the school buildings. PAGCOR financed the project through a budget of P393.45 million.

The schoolbuilding program was launched in 2011 with an estimated budget of P12 billion for the construction of 10,000 classrooms for various schools in the country.

“Due to increments in the benchmark cost, space limitations and upgrade of building standard, the estimated number of classrooms to be constructed was reduced from 10,000 to 6,928,” COA reported.