PLDT Inc. executives on Thursday heaved a collective sigh of relief following the completion of a forensic audit into elevated capital expenditures (capex) for the period 2019 to 2022.
“It’s quite a relief … We’re relieved … that despite this hiccup in the road, the financials remain robust and strong,” Manuel V. Panglinan, PLDT chairman said on the result of the investigation.
“There’s been no downgrading of PLDT’s credit standing. We’re relieved and focused on recovery in whatever reputation we may have lost,” he added.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PLDT said the forensic review of the elevated capex from 2019 to 2022 is “substantially complete” and that there was “no evidence of fraud, intentional concealment, or bad faith conduct on the part of any employee of the company.”
PLDT also said it completed discussions with major vendors representing some 80 percent of its outstanding capex commitments as of December last year.
The company entered into settlement and mutual release agreements with its major vendors in March 2023, which resulted to the reduction of outstanding commitments to P33 billion from P48 billion.
To prevent capex overruns in the future, PLDT bared adopting and implementing various operational enhancements to its policies, procedures and control systems relating to the capex management process.
The company said its capex for this year ranges from P80 billion to P85 billion, lower than the P96.8 billion capex last year.
