COA says it's a violation former dad included in cash aid program

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit has questioned the City Assistance for Medicines Program (CAMP) of the previous administration for accommodating a former councilor who does not fall in the “less privileged” group.

The former councilor, whom the COA did not name, has been suffering from cancer and was certified by the Department of Social Welfare and Services as beneficiary.

But the COA questioned the move because he was allowed to avail assistance of up to P141,829.85, in violation of Section 2 of Executive Order No. 09-104 issued by then Mayor Tomas Osmeña which authorized a limit of P3,000.

But Councilor Jose Daluz III, the district councilor assigned to approve endorsements for the medical assistance program, said that there is nowhere in the E.O. that limits the assistance to P3,000.

“If you will read the executive order, there is a portion which says ‘for the cure of the patient’ which means that we can provide assistance until the patient is cured. The P3,000 part is only an outright cash that we can provide, but it doesn’t mean that we will only give P3,000,” Daluz said.

Daluz explained that the CAMP was for everyone, whether rich or poor, because its concept is to give back in the form of services to constituents who helped the city progress.

“Besides, when we created the program, we considered that in the time of health crisis, it’s not always a guarantee that we have money to avail medical care which applies to all whether you are rich or not,” he said.

Daluz also clarified that the less privileged are always their priority.

All participating pharmacies of CAMP reportedly released P64,164,546.10 but the city government was only able to pay P38,801,321.51.

COA said these payments were not covered by proper documentation which is a violation of the E.O. and of Presidential Decree 1445 or the Government Auditing Code, which says that “claims against government funds shall be supported by complete documentation.”

The DSWS is still far from complying with the requirements of the COA to recover and compile the prescriptions and other documents, which some city officials said is no longer compliable.

Reports said some documents in the office of Councilor Augustus Pe, Jr., the district councilor assigned in the north district, were already either disposed or burnt.

Dr. Esther Concha, executive assistant of Pe, confirmed that their office already disposed of the documents when they did a general cleaning.

But she said most of the documents they have are only duplicate copies because the original were sent to CAMP.

The prescriptions, she said, should be with the pharmacies because it is part of the documents that the beneficiaries must present to the pharmacy before it will dispense the medicines prescribed.

COA also questioned the disbursement of P13 million to pay the pharmacies which was done through cash advance.

“As a result, final value-added tax of five percent was not computed and withheld denying the government of the beneficial use of P662,102.90 which could have been used to help defray priority projects of the government,” COA said.

The documents submitted to COA to liquidate the cash advances were payrolls, which COA said, is misleading because it would mean that the beneficiaries were paid with cash instead of medicines.

COA conducted a cash examination of accountable officers and the result had showed that the equivalent amounts of the payrolls were received by then city administrator Francisco Fernandez.

COA said the city officials must be able to justify the participation of the former city administrator.

The CAMP is now known as the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medical Program which was created by Mayor Michael Rama to establish new guidelines to prevent abuse of the program. — (FREEMAN)