Nueva Ecija provincial government told to return P96.8 million unused funds

MANILA, Philippines — The provincial government of Nueva Ecija has been asked to return P96.81 million in unutilized funds it received from various government agencies.

In its annual audit report on Nueva Ecija, the Commission on Audit (COA) said the amount was neither fully utilized nor returned to their respective source agencies.

The audit report was uploaded on the COA website on April 18. The office of Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali reportedly received a copy of the report on April 11.

The COA said 34 of the provincial government’s fund transfer accounts amounting to P32.37 million were dormant for three to 30 years.

Seven other fund transfer accounts amounting to P64.44 million was unutilized for six months to almost three years.

The amount of fund transfer balance indicates the provincial government’s “inability to timely and fully utilize government resources” for specific programs and projects, according to the audit body.

“The above lapses on the timely and full utilization of funds deprived the intended recipients of the benefits that could have been derived from the programs,” the COA said.

It said the funds remained unreturned to source agencies  in violation of Section 4.9 of COA Circular 94-013, which states that the implementing agency must return any unused balance upon completion of projects.

The COA said the audit team requested additional documents from the provincial accounting office to understand the conditions for the fund transfer accounts.

In an order dated May 10, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the preventive suspension of Umali in connection with its investigation on an administrative case filed against him over the alleged illegal issuance of more than 200 permits for sand and gravel extraction in the province.