PNoy home province Tarlac awash in idle cash

Tarlac, the home province of President Benigno Aquino III, has a problem that everyone should have - in the last two years it received more money than it could readily spend.

In its yearend audit report the Commission on Audit reported that Tarlac received P110,857,707.39 in 2011 and 2012 from various national government agencies and pork barrel allocations of legislators.

The sums were supposedly for priority infrastructure, livelihood and health care projects of the provincial government. But auditors said only P65.79 million has been spent leaving 40.65 percent or P45.07 million idle.

“The delayed implementation of projects deprived the constituents of Tarlac of the intended benefits that could be derived therefrom,” COA said.

Among the development projects that were not implemented, and the monies for which lies unspent, is an organic agriculture program funded with P1,232,250. It was supposed to be completed by December 2012 but auditors said not a single centavo was spent.

A P20 million sum received from the Department of Interior and Local Government two days after Christmas 2011 as Tarlac’s share from the Local Government Support Fund remains intact to date. Neither was it recorded in the provincial records.

An annex to the COA report listed the rest of idle funds and their sources:

P4.48 million from the Department of Health
P1.23 million from the Department of Agriculture,
P2.03 million from Philippine Health Insurance,
P1.35 million from the Dangerous Drugs Board, and
P15.97 million from the Priority Development Assistance Funds of Rep. Susan A. Yap.

The PDAF money was received in 2011 and 2012 and earmarked “for various Priority Development Projects for 2nd District, Province of Tarlac.”

Meanwhile, the COA recommended that the provincial government conduct regular monitoring of projects being implemented to ensure that they are completed on time and serve the purposes they were intended for. — DVM, GMA News