DSWD’s Tulfo to probe P1.9 billion in undistributed cash aid

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo on Thursday said that he will push for an investigation into the nearly P2 billion worth of financial assistance which the agency supposedly failed to distribute to beneficiaries under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

This came after the Commission on Audit (COA) released its 2021 annual audit report showing that DSWD’s offices in the National Capital Region and Western Visayas had undistributed SAP funds amounting to P1,908,536,000.

“CAs (cash advances) granted to SDOs/AOs (Special Disbursing Officers/Accountable Officers) of DSWD FO (field office) NCR and VI for implementation of SAP amounting to P1,908,536,000.00 were not distributed to beneficiaries, depriving them of the financial assistance needed during the pandemic,” the COA report read.

Some 190 SDOs in NCR had an unutilized balance of P1,753,442,000, while eight SDOs in Region 6 had P155,094,000, according to the report.

Answering to this during a Laging Handa briefing, Tulfo said that this issue happened during the former administration and is still being looked into now.

He claimed that P1.7 billion of this SAP fund was returned by DSWD to the Bureau of Treasury and was not lost.

“Na-flag kami diyan ng COA. P1.7 billion po ‘yun na ibinalik ng DSWD sa Bureau of Treasury dahil nga po hindi naibigay. Ngayon, ang problema namin, maraming naniningil ngayon na hindi raw sila nakatanggap,” he said.

“Paiimbestigahan ko ho ito. Ano ang nangyari? Pero initially, mayroon na ho akong report dito parang nagkakaroon daw ng confusion pero hindi pa ho malinaw pero I will keep on investigating,” he added.

(We were flagged by COA. P1.7 billion was returned by the DSWD to the Bureau of Treasury because it was not distributed. Our problem now is there are many people saying they were not able to receive the financial aid. I will have this investigated. What happened? But initially, I already have a report saying there was confusion. It's not clear yet but I will keep on investigating.)

Tulfo also said he is saddened that he has to tap two to three personnel to investigate the matter when they could just focus on the DSWD’s current and future projects.

“Medyo may dilemma ho ako dito at medyo malungkot kasi kung papa-imbestigahan ko itong (I’m having a dilemma and quite sad because if I will have this investigated) what happened, I will pull out two or three of my people to investigate this matter when in fact, they could focus on our problems now and in the future,” he said.

It could be recalled that DSWD was also flagged by COA, based on its 2020 annual report, over P780.71 million in unutilized cash aid for Filipinos hit by COVID-19 lockdowns. — BM, GMA News