Bohol 4Ps beneficiaries commit “irregularities”

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines  — Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, are allegedly the ones committing anomalous activities of the funds given them, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Bohol.

Luz Fegarido, provincial link officer of 4Ps in the province, said one of the irregularities done by beneficiaries was using the money given them for cell phone loads and other expenses not intended for the purpose of the program.

Another is the “trading off” the beneficiary’s atutomatic teller machine card to unscrupulous buyers, who in turn, are the ones who withdrew the 4Ps funds (also known as conditional cash transfer or CCT) provided by the DSWD, Fegarido told The Freeman.

The DSWD-Bohol, however, declined to name these beneficiaries who have done damage to the program, but it is now monitoring the beneficiaries to stop the anomaly.

Fegarido said it is not only Bohol that is experiencing this problem, as she surmised that this may be common also in other provinces, thus the agency is now taking steps to stop these illegal activities of beneficiaries.

Fegarido said the DSWD understood though that beneficiaries may be desperate in their personal financial problems that they were forced to use the CCT for other purposes outside of the 4Ps program.

The DSWD-Bohol said there are now 22 cases of irregularities in the program, with three appeals and one “external pressure” such as political influence.

It has created the grievance redress system to address these problems and it is now attending to a total of 3,215 cases.

Meanwhile, in its status accomplishment report, the DSWD-Bohol said it was able to pay out a total of P62,485,304 for 86 projects for beneficiaries in more than 40 towns, under the grassroot participatory budgeting process.

A total of P5,574,815.65 in cash assistance has been distributed to 11,398 beneficaries, under the assistance In crisis situations.

Moreover, Fegarido said DSWD-Bohol has been ahead of other provinces in Central Visayas, in terms of family development sessions, of which it posted 97.64 percent accomplishment; 99.93 percent in deworming; 93.24 percent for health services involving regular check-up and vaccinations for children, from three to 14-year-old.

DSWD-Bohol also scored high in terms of coverage with 100 percent each in the districts, cities and municipalities and 98 percent in the barangays. It produced the Ewican family of Carmen town as the regional grand champion in the Search for Huwarang Pantawid Pamilya for 2014, she added.  (FREEMAN)