Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 21) — The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has been spending unnecessarily on seminars and training held in expensive hotels, according to state auditors who flagged the office's training expenses in its annual audit report for 2018.

The OSG supposedly spent P1,270,312.50 million for rental of venue in different hotels and restaurants in Makati City, near its headquarters.

“The seminars/training could have been done in the office premises, government facilities, or in hotels and restaurants used for government sponsored international conventions, meetings and the like that would charge lower costs,” auditors said.

Among the expenses listed in the report was a bill amounting to almost P180,000 for a one-day corporate planning event at luxury hotel I’M Hotel.

The OSG also paid World Hotel Makati, Inc. P252,000 for a one-day awareness seminar.

Payments amounting to at least P30,000 up to almost P120,000 were also made to Cocina Dela Abuelas Corporation.

Aside from spending in hotels and restaurants, the OSG also failed to submit a list of the attendees of these seminars and training, the report stated.

“There were also no attendance sheet and some has no list of participants attached,” the report read.

State auditors also called out over P105,000 of honoraria to resource persons or lecturers in seminars.

The payments supposedly lacked supporting documents and only letters of invitation and computation of honorarium were attached.

“Due to the absence of supporting document, the propriety of the transaction is doubtful,” the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

The commission directed the OSG to refrain from conducting seminars in expensive venues and instead hold future training at office premises.