MANILA, Philippines -- The Arroyo administration's purchase of P2.4 million worth of cards to provide poor families access to government-subsidized rice during a temporary rice crisis last year was just a waste of money, according to the Commission on Audit (COA).
"The purchase of Family Access Cards [FAC] and bar codes to ensure access to NFA rice during rice shortages was not justified thus, its procurement in the total amount of P2,418,700.69 was considered unnecessary," the COA said in its 108-page audit report on the DSWD.
The government audit agency said that the FACs was an "ineffective solution to combat the food shortage" and the money could have instead been used to purchase more rice or used for "more urgent programs for the poor."
While the FACs were supposed to guarantee poor families access to rice from the National Food Authority, beneficiaries claimed they were still not allocated rice because of insufficient supply rendering the cards useless, according to COA.
The bar codes?numbers assigned to every family-beneficiary to ensure that the rice sold by the NFA at a discounted price would not be cornered by those implementing the system?were "superfluous" as well because there were already signatures on the cards that could authenticate the forms used to purchase the NFA rice. Moreover, store owners did not have scanners to validate the cards, COA said.
The DSWD purchased 750,000 pieces of FACs worth P2.21 million distributed to indigent families in Metro Manila in May last year after the government announced a rice shortage. Printing of the bar codes cost P206, 200.
In justifying the project, the DSWD said the bar codes minimized reproduction of the FACS. Moreover, the DSWD and the NFA ensured that there would be no shortage of rice at the government-run stores.
The DSWD also stressed that the cards would remain useful even without a rice crisis because "its purpose is to provide access by families to 2 kgs of rice everyday at the lowest price."
Aside from the issuance of the FACs, the COA also observed the lack of proper monitoring system to ensure that beneficiaries of the government's P1.34-billion poverty alleviation program called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) were complying with the conditions in exchange for the cash grant given them.
Moreover, there were some beneficiaries that were not eligible for the program. As of December 30, 2008, there were 356,444 beneficiaries of the poverty-reduction and social development program nationwide. (On its website, the DSWD said there are currently 700,000 families receiving cash grants from the program that was given a P10B budget for the year.)
Under the 4Ps, beneficiaries stand to receive P300-P500 a month if they avail of the government's food, health, and education programs.
The DSWD said that the compliance verification system for the program has not yet been installed but a monitoring system was already in place. Moreover, spot checks would be done by the DSWD to ensure that beneficiaries comply with the conditions imposed in the program.
The DSWD added that it has also begun to address the issue of ineligible families becoming beneficiaries of the program.
President Macapagal-Arroyo has announced that the beneficiaries of the 4Ps should increase to one million by the end of 2009.
In its report, the COA also took exception on the unpaid loan assistance amounting to P104.7 million by end of 2008 from projects such as the Tindahan Natin Project (TNP), Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaan (SEA-K), and PGMA Micro-Financing and Enterprise Development Loans.
"The low recovery rate of the loans assistance deprived the government of the funds directly needed to sustain the implementation of the said projects and to support social services and other poverty reduction programs," COA said.
