DA defends release of P4.3-B augmentation fund

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture yesterday defended the release of the additional P4.3-billion augmentation fund for the agency’s priority programs.

In its 2007 report, the Commission on Audit (COA) had said that the release of the additional P4.3 billion was over and above the DA’s approved budget for 2007.

DA officials argue, however, that such releases were legal and in line with existing procedures approved by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Agriculture Undersecretary Belinda Gonzales explained that DBM procedures allow the augmentation of funds for programs and projects over and above the approved budget of the agency on condition that such supplemental allocations are for existing programs spelled out in the General Appropriations Act or the national budget.

Gonzales said the additional fund releases last year were used to step up the implementation of priority programs of the department to increase food production as part of President Arroyo’s commitment to increase public spending for the agriculture sector.

She said funds that were released to the DA before the May 2007 elections were used for programs for the summer planting season.

As a result of the additional fund releases, the DA was able to reach and even slightly surpass the government’s palay production target of 7.1 million metric tons (MT) during the summer crop for 2008 amid a global food crisis and high fuel prices.

The DA assailed the COA for issuing its findings without including the DA’s responses to the irregularities the audit body discovered.

In a statement, the DA insisted yesterday that its regional field units have adequately answered the issues raised by the COA on the implementation of certain DA projects at the local level.

The DA complained that COA failed to include most of the department’s responses in its final 2007 report.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, however, welcomed the COA report, although he initially chided media for not citing the favorable observations made by COA in the same report.

In a new statement released yesterday, the DA explained that as a result of the continuous dialogue between the DA and COA, the commission and the department will improve the system of monitoring its projects and programs.

“The DA’s regional officials have already submitted their explanations to the issues raised by the Commission to the COA officers in their respective regions,” Yap said. “Unfortunately, most of these responses were not included in the final COA report,” Yap said.

The DA, however, welcomes the plans of Congress and the Office of Ombudsman to investigate the farm programs questioned by COA.

DA said the investigations would help government get to the bottom of the COA-reported irregularities in DA projects being implemented by local government units.

Yap said these probes would help the department pinpoint those responsible for discrepancies cited by COA and at the same time clear the overwhelming majority of local government executives and municipal agricultural officers (MAOs) who have been doing a splendid job of helping implement the government’s programs.

As to the questions raised by the COA on the DA’s Programang Gulayan ng Masa, Bureau of Plant Industry director Joel Rudinas explained that because the bureau does not have regional personnel, the funds for the project were released directly to the DA’s regional field units (RFUs) for the purchase of the project inputs that were handed out to beneficiaries in Metro Manila and 30 provinces with the highest incidence of hunger.

The RFUs turn over these inputs to urban and rural beneficiaries based on the lists submitted by LGUs and nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

Rudinas stressed that the RFUs were required to purchase and distribute to beneficiaries only the vegetable seeds that had passed the stringent germination tests carried out by the BPI’s National Quality Seed Control Laboratories (NQSCL).

He admitted, though, that the quality of these NQSCL-certified seeds deteriorate two to three months after these are repacked, so complaints about inferior quality of such inputs could have resulted from the delayed planting or poor storage of the seeds.

Rudinas said that the Gulayan project was closely monitored by the BPI, with its beneficiaries reaching almost 900,000 in 2007.

Budget chief claims COA mistake

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said COA erred in alleging the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had unilaterally released P4.2 billion in food production funds to the DA.

“We have in our records the corresponding letter of request for each of the releases,” Andaya said in a statement to dispute a COA report that the DA did not request the release of the P4.2 billion.

He said as a policy, a written request is required before DBM releases funds to the agency. “We (DBM) are known to be tight-fisted, we do not give if we are not asked.” – With Paolo Romero