UCPB forms body to review use of coco levy funds by CIIF

The board of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) has formed a special review committee (SRC) to conduct an investigation on the alleged use of coconut levy funds for providing lavish perks to its top executives.

UCPB chairman Jose R. Perez said the SRC was created following the directive of former Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairperson Haydee Yorac in her letter dated April 27, 2005 to him.

The other members of the committee are UCPB directors Jesus L. Arranza, Rosalinda U. Casiguran, Romeo C. Royandoyan and Jose Marie T. Faustino. Royandoyan and Faustino are the farmers’ representatives to the UCPB board.

Perez said committee will look into the reasonableness of certain operating expenses in the CIIF Oil Mills, and has advised all the CIIF companies to immediately restrict similar expenses pending a review of their policies on the same.

In a letter to Perez before she quit her PCGG post, Yorac questioned the propriety of allowing CIIF president and chief executive officer Roland Golez and other top executives to enjoy the following perks: first class travels with a per diem of $300 which is more than the per diem received by UCPB officials when they are on official trips abroad; the increase of this per diem to members of the board of directors to $500; unlimited representation expenses as well as membership in golf and country clubs.

Yorac noted that the PCGG was not provided with documents to show a system of liquidation that will indicate how, where and what occasion the money was spent. Moreover, she said memberships is golf and country clubs are a luxury that coconut farmers, the supposed beneficiaries of the coco levy fund, can ill afford.

The former PCGG chief also noted that the CIIF president/CEO and finance officer were unable to provide PCGG with written rules nor policy on the company’s executive car program that allow its executives to purchase vehicles at company expense and buy back the vehicle at book value after five years from purchase when it will be considered as fully depreciated.

Perez who heads the SRC said he has sent a formal communication to the heads of the CIIF companies to furnish the committee with copies of their policies on these expenses for its review.

Perez said the committee has issued interim guidelines to govern expenses in the meantime that the review is being undertaken so as not to disrupt the CIIF companies’ normal operation.

In previous years, UCPB was represented in the CIIF companies. However, in 2002, the PCGG separated the actual administration of the CIIF companies from UCPB. On the same year, the CIIF companies elected their own chairmen who do not report to the UCPB board of directors.

"According to law, the UCPB is chief administrator of the CIIF. However, in an effort to avoid the abuses that happened in the past, the actual administration of the CIIF companies were deliberately separated from the UCPB chairman and board. With the exception of Mr. Roland Golez, no other director of the UCPB sits in the boards of the CIIF. We have realized the negative effects of that complete separation and have tired to do something about it by naming the chairman of the UCPB to the Oil Mills vice comm.. Ruben Carranza who resigned from PCGG in July 2004," said Yorac.

Perez assured the committee will carry out its review thoroughly and expeditiously.