Audit of Kidapawan water district looms amid mismanagement rap

KIDAPAWAN, Philippines – How much have the allegedly footloose officials of the Metro Kidapawan Water District (MKWD) been spending on foreign travels? The answer will hopefully known soon when a team of government auditors starts looking into the financial condition of the MKWD, one of the country’s biggest water districts. Prospero Pichay, chairman of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), on Saturday said he is sending the auditors to Kidapawan next week amid allegations of mismanagement. “Our aim here is to find out if indeed the funds were mismanaged or there was misuse of funds," said Pichay in an interview over radio station dxND. Pichay said among the allegations is that top officials of the water district have travelled abroad six times in 2008 alone. Their travels were recorded on January 15, March 31, June 7, August 7, October 14, and Nov 11. “We’ll try to find out if the agency has sought approval from the Office of the President in every foreign travel they made, which is a requirement in every GOCC (government-owned and controlled corporation," said Pichay. He also tasked the audit team to look into the reported transaction entered into by MKWD with the Land Bank of the Philippines in 2008. “I was told the agency has entered into a loan agreement with the Land Bank sometime last year without seeking a waiver from the LWUA. Such act, he stressed, violates Presidential Decree 198. “It’s not a rule or a policy, it’s a law that they violated, if indeed that’s true," he said. Under chapter 6, section 61, paragraph 6 of PD 198 or the Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973, a local water utility may make loans after a feasibility study of any project is completed and loan funds shall be made by a consultant pre-qualified by LWUA. Pichay said the request for MKWD’s audit came from Kidapawan Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco and his vice mayor, Joseph Evangelista. The LWUA has not conducted operational audit of MKWD since 2006 and Pichay cited as reason the lack of manpower of LWUA to perform such task. “All over the country, we have more than 600 water districts. We do the audit at random. Since there was a request for audit, we have created a team to perform such task. This case is special," he said. Gantuangco’s request for audit came after 22 employees of MKWD wrote him a petition on January 2009 that they want audit of the agency on a belief that funds were mismanaged since 2006. - GMANews.TV