OVP failed to track beneficiaries of disaster aid – COA

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Vice President (OVP) failed to track beneficiaries and identify the disasters targeted by its welfare distribution programs amounting to over P176 million in 2023, the Commission on Audit (COA) said in its latest audit report.

State auditors observed deficiencies in OVP’s distribution of welfare goods for 2023, noting that the office failed to document the distribution list of rice beneficiaries, situational reports or mission orders to support the disaster that required relief goods and the list of beneficiaries validated by local government authorities that would have determined the appropriate amount of welfare goods to be distributed.

This meant that state auditors could not confirm whether the distributions ever took place.

“Various deficiencies in the distribution of welfare goods were observed due to gaps in the existing guidelines and procedures and control measures, which is not strictly in accordance with Sections 123 and 124 of Presidential Decree 1445; thus, the validity and occurrence of the distributions of welfare goods could not be ascertained,” the audit report read.

COA said the OVP failed to support five welfare distributions from Oct. 5 to Dec. 29 with complete documentation. The OVP distributed over P64.4 million worth of PanSarap buns for public schools, rice for disaster relief and various yearend food packs during the period.

State auditors also flagged the inventory of OVP’s Davao satellite office on Dec. 18 to 20, 2023 where they found food items nearing expiry that have yet to be distributed, food items not placed in the storage area and kept in an unventilated shipping container.

Furthermore, COA also flagged how the OVP had underspent the allotted budget for its livelihood program Mag Negosyo Ta ‘Day (MTD), for which only P600,000 of the P150 million was used as of Dec. 31, 2023 “due to the unforeseen difficulties in the implementation of the program.”

Under MTD, underserved individuals, groups and communities are given cash grants to start their own livelihood.

No feasibility study

COA said the OVP did not conduct a feasibility study on achieving maximized utilization of the P150 million and that the implementing unit of the program was “undermanned to implement the program,” with only seven personnel.

“These observations only showed the lack of preparedness to utilize the P150-million budget for the program. Considering that this is the pilot year of implementation of the MTD program, difficulties are expected,” state auditors noted.

The report added that beneficiaries found it difficult to comply with the required documents for livelihood cash grant, with only four out of 578 applicants able to comply.

“Had proper planning (been) conducted before the implementation of the program, these concerns could have been considered in the estimation of the budget and setting of targets,” the audit report read.

COA also noted that the OVP accomplished its targets under its other socio-economic programs such as for medical, burial, free transport initiative and tree-planting.

The OVP was able to spend over P1.8 billion out of the allocated P2.2 billion for the socio-economic programs, which signals that the “allocated funds were appropriately and optimally utilized.”

“The agency’s accomplishments were higher than the targets per output indicators, which means the agency was able to accomplish its (programs) as intended,” COA added.