COA orders Agusan del Sur to account for P56.2M funds for poverty alleviation

The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the provincial government of Agusan del Sur to account for P56.206 million funds allocated to the local government in 2006 for a poverty alleviation project.

In a 2014 audit report recently published on its website, the COA said the funds, allocated by the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) to Agusan del Sur for the implementation of the infrastructure component of the Mindanao Sustainable Settlement Area Development (MINSSAD) project, remains unliquidated despite the project’s completion of in 2008.

The MINSSAD is a poverty alleviation project for Mindanao funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) implemented under the administration and monitoring of the DAR.

The infrastructure component of MINSSAD, meanwhile, was implemented by NIA through partnership with various local government units (LGUs) in Region XIII-CARAGA, including the provincial government of Agusan del Sur.

The COA said that based on records, a total of P56.206 million was transferred by NIA to the provincial government of Agusan del Sur for the procurement of irrigation pumps for distribution to various irrigators associations in the province as part of the implementation of the infrastructure component of MINSSAD.

“The Project Completion Report disclosed that the implementation of MINSSAD was completed in 2008…It was noted, however, that there were no NIA monthly reconciliation reports for the project expenditures or any form of monitoring report showing how the MINSSAD project was implemented,” the COA said.

The COA noted that based on NIA’s report, the monitoring of the project was not sustained due to the refusal of the Province of Agusan del Sur to liquidate the said fund transfer unless some undisclosed local issues were resolved.

“The details of the issues between the parties, however, were not disclosed,” the COA report read.

“In effect, fund transferred to the Province of Agusan del Sur booked under Due from LGU account remained unliquidated despite completion of the MINSSAD project in CY 2008,” it added.

The COA has directed the NIA to demand accounting and liquidation report from the provincial government of Agusan del Sur by sending representatives in the area.

In a letter of response to COA, the NIA management said it had already made several demands and representations to the provincial government of Agusan del Sur in prior years regarding the matter, “but liquidation report remained unsubmitted”.

The NIA, however, assured the state audit body that this time, it will demand from the provincial government the liquidation of the actual amount cited in the COA report.

“As a rejoinder, we further recommend that (NIA) Management coordinate with the Governor of the Province of Agusan del Sur to resolve the issues which caused the non-liquidation of the P56.206 million MINSSAD Project fund,” the COA told NIA. — RSJ, GMA News