Probe ‘zero accomplishment’ of DILG’s Masa Masid — De Lima

MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Sen. Leila de Lima has called for a Senate investigation into the reported “zero accomplishment” of the P500-million community-based anti-corruption and anti-drug program of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

De Lima filed Senate Resolution 807 urging the appropriate Senate committee to inquire into the DILG’s anti-corruption and anti-drug program, known as “Mamamayang Ayaw sa Anomalya, Mamamayang Ayaw sa Ilegal na Droga” (Masa Masid) project.

“In the midst of the administration’s controversial campaign against criminality and drugs, disbursement of funds for programs should be transparent and implementers accountable to dispel speculation on the lawfulness of public expenditures,” she said.

In its audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) found that while the DILG has used its entire budget amounting to P500 million for 2017 for the Masa Masid project, it has no accomplishment reports.

“Transparency is the cornerstone of good governance and public offices have due responsibility to submit annual reports on their agency’s operations not only for compliance with their performance incentive requirements but more importantly to show that the people’s budget was judiciously and effectively utilized,” she said.

De Lima said all government agencies implementing programs, projects and activities are required to lay down specific key results areas, which are the basis for operations and corresponding budgetary allocations.

COA flagged the project’s feedback mechanism to streamline the handling of anonymous reports and regional orientations as well as training for the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council that have a budget of P17 million and P91 million, respectively. 

Eight of the Masa Masid activities amounting to P145 million were not implemented, COA noted, forcing the DILG to realign its budget to anti-corruption and counter-extremism training.

Of the P99.19-million allocation for Masa Masid, DILG realigned P50 million to the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) for training on counter-extremism; P38.69 million to Local Government Academy (LGA) for anti-corruption training; and P10.5 million to the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) for its communication plan.

She said the DILG has failed to submit the respective liquidation reports coming from the three government agencies in the fourth quarter of last year.

The COA questioned the absence of some audit requirements in the memorandum of agreement that the DILG has entered with LGA, PPSC and PCOO, De Lima said.