P-Noy sacks NIA chief

MANILA, Philippines - For failing to meet targets, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) chief Antonio Nangel received a public scolding during the agency’s 50th anniversary celebration last week.

And for giving unacceptable excuses to President Aquino for his supposed failures and questionable fund use, Nangel has now gotten the boot.

Aquino explained why Nangel should be axed. For one, Aquino said he could not understand why NIA never met its target to irrigate new areas of farmlands when they had been getting 100 percent of their allocation from the national budget every year.

Aquino said he wanted to investigate NIA’s use of funds since failing to meet targets would suggest the money given to them in full did not go to projects but elsewhere.

Asked if he had plans to fire the NIA chief after being unhappy with his performance, Aquino said it was “obvious.”

He said the tenure of the NIA administrator should be renewed every year, the agency being a government corporation.

“Unless I would suffer from amnesia from now until later, I have no plans to renew (Nangel’s appointment),” Aquino told reporters after the pistol distribution ceremony to police officers at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame yesterday.

Aquino said he became more dissatisfied with Nangel who had faced the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board when asked by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to report on the funding for NIA. The President chairs the NIA board.

Aquino noted the report of the DBM, which covered about 23 years, showed the budget allocated for NIA had all been obligated and disbursed.

If this was the case, Aquino said NIA must be able to justify where it spent the money up to the last centavo.

He said everything must match – if P100.10, for example, was allocated for a project, then those obligated along with the contract and expenditures must also be P100.10.

“What’s painful is the 60 percent accomplishment (rate). So immediately... what did you spend on that was not finished? So that is what I want to be investigated thoroughly,” Aquino said.

The President said it would be more understandable if the failure to meet the target was sporadic but the bad thing was that this was the trend every year in the last 23 years.

“If something was completed 100 percent after being paid 100 percent, maybe that would be okay. But if you paid 100 percent and only 60 percent was done, that would not be quite okay,” he said.

Aquino said those were just some of the points he wanted to share even if he was being advised not to dwell on NIA while at a Philippine National Police event since there were a lot of other things to tackle.

But he stressed he could not help but feel disappointed knowing that an agency would set targets itself but could not meet them even once.

“There’s a high of 80 percent and a low of 30 percent accomplishment versus their target that themselves set,” Aquino said.

Another questionable issue, he said, was the rehabilitation of existing irrigation projects that could reach up to 114 percent compliance, something that NIA could not do for new areas to be irrigated.

Aquino said he did not want to make baseless allegations but he tasked the Office of the Executive Secretary, the DBM and other agencies to look into this.

Aquino reiterated irrigation was important for the country to improve agricultural output.

With the big amounts being given to NIA, the President said farmers must feel they were being cared for.

“It will be painful if it will be proven that the supposed concern turned into irregularities, and we will not allow that to happen,” Aquino said.

“If there were those doing this deliberately, if there were those who planned unpleasant things, if they will not be able to explain, then let’s just be sorry. I’ve long been appealing but if the people don’t listen, then we will let agencies concerned deal with the crooks,” he said.

Last June 25, Aquino scored NIA for failing to meet the target it set of irrigating 81,170 hectares of farmlands in 2012, as well as missing their target in 2011 under the Irrigation Services Development Program.