CoA finds P2-billion leak in DSWD fund transfers

Written by  Chito Lozada
The Daily Tribune

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was ineffective in administering huge funds, which will be more than P40 billion for next year, entrusted to it and that it in turn transfers for other institutions to implement, a Commission on Audit (CoA) report for 2011, covering the first full year of the Aquino administration, showed.

The report said nearly P1 billion worth of fund transfers to non-government organizations (NGOs) or people’s organizations (POs) in the implementation of social programs were unliquidated last year and another P2 billion transferred to government agencies, local government units and state firms remained without any accounting, according to CoA.

While the report referred to DSWD programs which did not include the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, the inefficient fund transfers reflect on the process involved in the CCT or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) since Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman extensively uses NGOs for the program.

The report on fund transfers was part of the audit which included an assessment that nearly 10 percent of the supposed CCT beneficiaries cannot be considered as in need of government cash assistance.

The unliquidated funds were those used for DSWD programs aimed at enhancing the capacities 

and opportunities for the poor such as the comprehensive inteegrated delivery of social services (CIDSS), disaster management including relief and rehabilitation, social protection and promotion of rights and welfare of the poor and the disadvantaged, and community-driven projects.

The funds were made available to beneficiaries through DSWD-accredited anbd licensed NGOs or POs and are sourced wither through the budget or legislators’ priority development assistance funds (PDAF).

CoA in its report noted that “efforts exerted by the (DSWD) have not been sufficient to monitor the project implementation and submission of fund utilization reports by the NGOs.”

It said as of the end of last year, due from NGOs and POs had a balance of P851.563 million, of which P201.299 million or 23.64 percent have been outstanding for over four years.

The most delinquent in securing liquidation reports for the fund transfers was the central office of the DSWD which has an outstanding balance of P465 million by the end of last year, according to the report.

The CoA report also indicated that in the national capital region, 16 out of 21 NGOs failed to reply on inquiries for the fund transfers, three NGOs’ addresses were no longer located and two NGOs stated that fund transfers were liquidated but not yet recorded.

The CoA also noted that the DSWD continued to provide funds to NGOs with outstanding unliquidated funds such as the Association for the Rights of Children in Southeast Asia with P660,000 unliquidated; Community Resource Center, The Marker of Light for the Marginalized Sector Inc. with P14.2 million unliquidated, CPEF Caring Foundation with P10.2 million unliquidated, and HAP-ACE Foundation with P13.6 million unliquidated.
In the central office, 14 NGOs cannot be located, one gave a different balance, 49 did not reply, five claimed to have submitted liquidation reports but cannot be found, two submitted liquidation reports belatedly and one has an incomplete address.

“Had concerned officials conducated regular and immediate monitoring of the project implementation, proper utilization and liquidation of government funds could have been achieved and huge outstanding balances minimized,” the CoA report commented.

Unaccounted for funds coursed through government agencies included P178 million transferred to the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) intended for various regular programs, for CCT implementation and the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction.

The CoA report also showed P155.6 million worth of funds transferred to the National Food Authority (NFA) that included P72.7 million worth of rice purchases using PDAF of legislators.

The report also included a review of the CCT which found that the program may not have been strictly adhered to due to inclusion of 372 not extremely poor beneficiaries in 3,906 households visited in Regions III, IV, V and NCR and 1,602 in ARMM.  

“In this instance, government resources have not been properly utilized, more qualified beneficiaries may have been deprived access to the Program, and an atmosphere of envy among people in the community has been observed,” according to the report.

The CoA recommended the delisting from the program of beneficiaries who are not extremely poor; the of conduct continuous validation of beneficiaries to ensure only qualified ones benefitted from the program; and impose sanctions against officials and employees who do not conduct continuous monitoring and validation of beneficiaries.

It also urged the DSWD to revisit the criteria on selecting and qualifying beneficiaries for possible enhancements based on the results of the validation and monitoring activities to ensure that only the poor are included in the program.

“There was a decrease in the number of grant recipients in CY 2011 as compared with CY 2010 and a fluctuating trend in the amounts disbursed vis-à-vis the number of recipient beneficiaries due to non compliance to program conditionalities, delayed updating of the database, and inaccurate and/or unupdated Compliance Verification Forms,” the report added. 

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