COA: Irregularities persist in Pantawid Pamilya Program

Irregularities, double entries, data errors, delayed cash releases and liquidation continue to riddle the government's Pantawid Pamilya Program, the  Commission on Audit (COA) said in its latest audit reports on the anti-poverty program.

 

In 2012, the COA said P96.62 million in disbursements did not comply with regulations. Auditors said some P50.15 million of the releases went to 7,782 households not on the list of validated beneficiaries.

• 2,879 who are identified to be on active beneficiary status;
• 2,258 who have had their HH IDs deleted by the Regional Information and Technology Officer (RITO) from the NHTO (these were originally identified as Pantawid Pamilya partner beneficiaries prior to their deletion but will be reactivated with the concurrence of the RITOs involved);
• 1,396 whose HH IDs were detected as duplicated should actually be identified as being in active beneficiary status given the on-going synchronization of databases between NHTO and the Pantawid Pamilya within the year.
• 1,229 are active members whose files were tagged by the NHTO to temporarily identify them as cases with inconsistent data until such time that their records are updated.  These cases were verified by the RITOs in the 2nd Quarter of 2013.

An earlier, more comprehensive audit report covering PPP operations from 2007 to 2009 in Metro Manila, Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas and the Davao region pointed out numerous irregularities and noted that the Department of Social welfare and Development (DSWD) was uable to promptly release billions in PPP funds.

 

“As of December 31, 2009 the DSWD has funded cash grants amounting to P6.589 billion of which only P3.8 billion was so far distributed/released by the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) to the beneficiaries leaving undistributed balance of P2.789 billion,” the COA said.

 

Auditors also discovered multiple entries, erroneous data and long delays in “conversion from over-the-counter (OTC) to cash cards."

 

“Of the P9.647 billion funds released, only P6.734 billion was covered with work and financial plan,” the COA also said.