LLDA flagged over uncollected rental fees

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has reprimanded the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) for failing to collect P28.71 million in rental fees and other charges from aquaculture operators in Laguna de Bay.

In a 2020 annual audit report, the COA said that LLDA’s inadequate assessment and collection procedures resulted in unpaid rental and regulatory fees, administrative fines and cash bonds by several aquaculture operators last year.

“A review and comparison of the list of operators who paid their dues in 2020 and the masterlist of fishpen/fishcage structure in the Laguna de Bay as of December 2020 showed that the uncollected regulatory or rental fees, administrative fines and aquaculture bonds amounted to P28.71 million,” the audit report read.

State auditors noted that although the LLDA posted a total collection of P74.95 million, there were still 15 corporations, one cooperative and 14 fishpen owners as well as 3,257 fishcage operators who have yet to pay their rental fees.

“These operators have aquaculture structure in the Laguna de Bay as of December 2020, albeit no fees were collected from them for the calendar year 2020,” the COA said.

The audit body said there were operators who exceeded the 20-hectare maximum limit for fishpens, but were not imposed administrative fines.

It said these operators violated the Laguna de Bay fishery zoning and management guidelines or ZOMAG, which took effect on July 28, 2020.

The COA said there were some operators with more than 1,000-square-meter areas of operation, but were not required to pay the aquaculture cash bond.

It attributed the collection failure to LLDA’s poor assessment, computation and verification procedures.

State auditors said some assessment forms and computation of fees were not verified by the enforcement division, which they said violated LLDA’s Citizen’s Charter.

Th COA said the standard operating procedure (SOP) of the LLDA’s clearance and permit division regarding the issuance of fishpen and fishcage permits did not include procedural activities on follow-ups and monitoring of delinquent fishpen and fishcage operators.

State auditors urged the LLDA to revisit its SOP and include appropriate procedures for monitoring of delinquent accounts.

“The LLDA should expedite the development of a database of all aquaculture operators in order to have a permanent record of all payments made and facilitate collection of fees,” the COA said.