'P193.6-million donations for typhoon victims sleeping in bank'

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has more than P193.6 million in donated funds which can be used to help victims of tropical storm “Sendong” in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City.

This was revealed by state auditors who are questioning why the money is lying idle in a government depository bank and is not being utilized for its intended purpose.

Records reviewed by the Commission on Audit (COA) showed the DSWD received over P314.7 million in donations for typhoon victims from various sources from 2004 to 2010.

As of Dec. 31, 2010, more than P193.6 million remain unused “thereby defeating the objective for which the assistance was provided and resulting further to the accumulation of huge balance of idle funds.”

“The donors may have thought that all their donations had provided relief to the beneficiaries and were used to rehabilitate the damage done by the calamities which struck the country in the past years,” COA said.

“Although the government had earned corresponding interest from such deposits totaling P2,506,990.45 and P57,688.66 for local and foreign currency accounts respectively, as of year-end, it defeated the objectives for which the assistance was provided,” the audit report said.

“Moreover, management’s failure to utilize foreign currency donations amounting to P36,316,984.94 also for victims of typhoons, resulted to foreign currency loss of P757,326.07,” COA added.

State auditors said the DSWD should maximize the donations intended for specific purposes, considering that some P5.6 million of the donations were used for purposes not directly benefiting calamity victims.

An audit of the funds revealed the amount was utilized to pay for miscellaneous expenses “which should be more appropriately charged to regular funds.”

Records showed the money was used for warehouse rental, forklift rental, facilitation of release of donated goods, relief operations, trucking service, hauling, forklift, supplies, hand pallet truck, hydraulic stacker, tax, food, electricity and water.

“Expenses should be those that will directly benefit the beneficiaries. Said donations are not intended to remain idle in the (bank) awaiting for another calamity to occur,” the COA report stressed.

State auditors said the DSWD should also explain why expenses that should have been more appropriately charged to regular funds were charged to the donations.

University of the Philippines professor Marivic Raquiza, co-convenor of Social Watch Philippines that scrutinized the DSWD budget for next year, also claimed 80 percent of the agency’s P49.359-billion programs budget has been allotted to the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

Raquiza also noted other programs of the DSWD have to split the remaining 20 percent or P9.914 billion, including assistance for victims of disasters and natural calamities. The budget for disaster victims of P48.043 million is less than one-tenth of one percent of the total DSWD budget, Raquiza added.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, on the other hand, took exception to Raquiza’s findings.

She said that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has just handed the DSWD P215 million and another P300 million this week for Mindanao relief operations.

Soliman also said that 25 percent of the DSWD’s Quick Reaction Funds (QRF) goes to calamity funding.    

Soliman though admitted that although disaster relief operations are still part of her agency’s mandate in cushioning the impact of disasters, “we should move towards disaster mitigation not relief operations.”

That is why Malacañang, she said, is really serious in getting to the bottom of why such a tremendous disaster, the biggest yet in terms of deaths and destruction in the country, happened.

Soliman gave assurance the social welfare department’s 2012 budget for disaster victims is considerably huge.

“Our Quick Reaction Fund is P662.5 million for 2012,” Soliman pointed out. – With Artemio Dumlao