On Cuenco-Faelnar row Ultimatum given to recover funds for pending projects

CEBU – Cebu City south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco has given the Department of Agriculture the ultimatum to recover the total amount transferred to barangay Guadalupe for the pending Integrated Livelihood Project.

In his letter addressed to DA-7 director Ricardo Oblena dated September 8, Cuenco asked the agriculture department to take immediate action in recovering the full amount transferred to Guadalupe.

Cuenco is asking DA-7 to take action until September 23 or 15 days after the receipt of the letter.

Otherwise, Cuenco said, he would initiate the filing of criminal and administrative complaints against officials liable for misappropriations of funds.

Project fund worth P14,792,500 from the Priority Development Assistance Fund of Cuenco has been allocated to Guadalupe in 2005 supposedly for livelihood initiatives such as seedlings-planting and goat-raising projects, among others.

A memorandum of agreement was signed between the local government unit of Guadalupe and the DA citing terms and conditions for the implementation of the project.

The MOA states that Guadalupe is obliged to submit to the DA an audited monthly financial report. Yet the barangay has not followed the condition stated in the agreement, Cuenco said.

In the Audit Observation Memorandum made by the Commission on Audit, it was found that Guadalupe has not held a proper bidding for the purchase of seedlings.

The distribution and acknowledgements of seedlings did not reconcile with the number of seedlings purchased, according to the COA report.

The inventory of the seedlings was not properly accounted for because of the lack of monitoring, it read.

COA revealed that the Repeat Order of the seedlings in the amount of P1,249,606 has no inspection and acceptance report from the LGU.

Cuenco said that the COA report made him doubt that there is an anomaly going on with the disbursement of money he has allocated to give benefits to his people in the south district.

He questioned the non-transparency of the distribution of seedlings and said that Faelnar should make a report of the total list of beneficiaries of the said seedlings.

He also wants Faelnar to explain why 10 barangays in the north district have benefited from the seedlings when the project is solely for the south district.

Now, Cuenco is demanding for full rest accounting from Faelnar to see where the money for the goat dispersal project, which is pending for the last three years, had gone.

He also asked DA to cancel the MOA immediately so he could continue the project in another barangay, probably Quiot.

“I hope the money for the goat project is still there,” Cuenco said.

Faelnar, on the other hand, said that once the liquidation would be accomplished by his office, he would definitely return the fund to Cuenco.

“The money is just in the bank. The congressman can be assured that we will return the P8.2 million to him,” Faelnar said.

He also said that a liquidation report is currently being done and that he is expecting they would be able to finish and submit this by next week.

He said the distribution of seedlings to the 10 barangays in the north has permission and recommendation from the city agriculture.

“If it’s wrong to help other LGUs like Pulangbato which used the seedlings in its riverbanks to prevent flooding there, then I’ll say it’s my fault,” Faelnar said. — Jessica Ann Pareja/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)