COA: Rehab body wasted P7.4-M Pasig River cleanup fund

MANILA, Philippines - The Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) wasted more than P7.4 million in funds to clean up the river, the Commission on Audit (COA) said in its 2012 report.

State auditors said of the 10 materials recovery facilities (MRFs) the agency planned to construct starting in 2009, only four were fully completed as of December 2012 and only one – located in Addition Hills, Mandaluyong City – is operational.

The other three MRFs – located at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources compound, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines compound and at the Cardinal Sin Village in Sta. Ana, Manila – “were found to be non-operational and almost deteriorated due to the rain, heat and stray animals living inside the structures,” the COA reported. The three facilities cost a total of P1.9 million.

More than P5.5 million worth of equipment purchased for the MRFs were unused and had deteriorated, the COA said.

The unused equipment and non-operational MRFs are “tantamount to wastage of government funds,” the audit team said.

The COA said the PRRC is supposed to establish model communities along the Pasig River and the MRFs can convert or recycle the garbage collected from the river, giving the communities a source of livelihood.

Records show that in December 2008, a P9.9-million contract was awarded to Linear Construction Corp. through public bidding for the construction of 12 MRFs, which were supposed to be completed in May 2009.

The project was later revised to reduce the number of MRFs to 10 and the contract price to P9.1 million, and move the date of completion to January 2013.

During the same period, another contract was awarded to Metro Waste Solid Waste Management Corp. through public bidding to supply and deliver 188 pieces of MRF equipment worth P8.6 million.

The COA noted that P3 million of the MRF equipment were donated to local government units in 2011 and only P5.5 million remained with the PRRC. The remaining equipment, however, remains unutilized since the nine MRFs in the original contract have yet to be built, state auditors said.

The PRRC, in its defense, told COA it distributed the equipment to various locations because it has no facility to store the equipment.