Duplicate families in 4Ps cost government P326M – COA

MANILA, Philippines – The government lost P326.262 million from 2008 to 2016, when it gave cash benefits twice to some families in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). 

This is among the findings of a recent Commission on Audit performance audit report, where COA also recommended to withhold the acceptance of new members into the government’s flagship anti-poverty program until the DSWD can fix its records.

The DSWD admitted that it registered 25,410 duplicate families on its Pantawid Pamilya Information System (PPIS), dating back to 2008.

This is the yearly loss from 2008 to 2016:

Based on the amount, the biggest loss was in 2009, the last full year of the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo –  P96,233,600. Based on percentage of the 4Ps budget, the worst loss was in 2008, also during the Arroyo administration, or a loss of 4.23% of the 4Ps budget that year.

“DSWD tried to downplay the issue by asserting that it is only 0.11% of the entire budget of 4Ps from 2008 to 2016. However, ₱326,262,300.00 is a significant amount,” COA said.

COA added that P326 million could have helped 25,000 other households.

“But due to the existence of duplicates in the system, about 25,000 deserving households were prevented from receiving assistance from the program,” the report said.

Although COA recognized that there was a “steady decrease” in the duplicates, they were not satisfied by the pace of the DSWD in addressing the problem.

“It took nine (9) years or this audit for the DSWD to conduct its validation on these irregular/unauthorized releases,” the COA report said.

“DSWD also stated that grants received by households with duplicate entries will be recovered by the DSWD through its Payment Adjustment System,” it added. – Rappler.com