COA to DSWD: Account for unliquidated ‘pork’ funds

MANILA, Philippines – How was P854.4 million in Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) spent?

As far as pork barrel funds released to various non-government organizations and private foundations by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are concerned, the Commission on Audit (COA) has no idea.

An audit report released by the COA shows that about half or P485.3 million of the unaccounted-for funds was released between 2010 and 2012, when the Aquino administration was already in place, while P323.32 million was released from 2007-2009 under the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. P233.33 million was released in 2006 and prior years.

The COA report shows that fund releases to NGOs from 2006-2012 amounted to a total of P1.042 billion as of Dec 31, 2012. Of this amount, P854.4 million came from the PDAF of lawmakers.

The COA report said that NGOs received funds via the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa DSWD’s Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) project. It is a community-driven development project intended to encourage citizen participation in local governance and to help prioritize the delivery of basic services to local communities. 

Beneficiaries were supposed to account for the cash releases made to them by submitting the required “Fund Utilization Reports (FURs).” Many of them failed to do so because the DSWD was not strict about compliance with the requirement.

COA criticized the agency for its failure to make sure fund transfers were liquidated and project implementation was sufficiently monitored.

Accountabilities

The DSWD Central Office posted the biggest unliquidated sum of P476.018 million. The DSWD-National Capital Region came in 2nd with P214.73 million, and DSWD Region 2 with P77.13 million.

DSWD offices in Region 10 followed (P63.49 million), as did Region 3 (P49.16 million), Region 4B (P29.86 million), Region 12 (P29.3 million), Region 7 (P21.4 million), Region 6 (P20.85 million), Region 5 (P18.26 million) and Region 9 (P13.71 million).

The rest of DSWD’s regional offices reported only single-digit unliquidated fund releases.

Recommendation

To make sure that funds are liquidated, COA recommended that DSWD send demand letters to delinquent NGOs and monitor compliance with audit requirements.

Additional funds are not supposed to be released to any entity, including NGOs, with oustanding accountabilities. The same holds for those unable to meet liquidation deadlines.

The names of donor-legislators and NGOs that received the largest PDAF allocations and which have failed to submit liquidations were appended in the COA report under “Annex C.” – Rappler.com