Day of reckoning: Aquino fires irrigation chief

“Unless I get amnesia … I don’t have a plan to renew” his appointment that expired on Sunday, President Aquino said.

The end came swiftly for National Irrigation Administration (NIA) head Antonio Nangel as Aquino seeks to make the agency accountable for perennially missing its targets.

The President fired Nangel a week after the latter received a public scolding for his agency’s poor performance. “I think that should be obvious,” the President said, when asked on Tuesday in Camp Crame whether he had sacked Nangel.

Aquino told the media that the appointment of officials of government corporations was subject to renewal every year.

It was the Inquirer that reported on Thursday that the NIA administrator was on the way out.

At the 50th anniversary of the NIA on June 25, Aquino devoted his entire speech to pointing out the lackluster performance of the irrigation agency.

The NIA, he said, had only a 66-percent accomplishment rate for “new areas of irrigation” from 2001 to 2009, but these “yearly failures” continued through 2012.

In his speech, Aquino cited a long-delayed irrigation project in his home province to highlight the agency’s inefficiency. From 2001 through 2012, not once did the NIA accomplish its annual targets for new areas for irrigation, he said.

Replacement

Nangel was appointed by Aquino to the agency to serve from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013.

A Palace source, who asked not to be named, told the Inquirer that Aquino had asked for Nangel’s replacement as NIA chief as early as last week.

The source told the Inquirer on Tuesday that Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala had been directed to look for Nangel’s replacement.

The NIA is a government corporation under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture.

The office, created in 1963, is tasked with the development and operation of irrigation systems and with providing irrigation services to government’s agricultural programs.

‘60-40’ allocation

But the President pointed to a more troubling issue that seemed to plague the agency for about half of its existence: over the past 23 years, every peso allocated by Congress has been disbursed by the NIA, and yet the accomplishment rate for irrigating new areas was 60 percent, on average.

Citing the glaring disparity between funds released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the actual completion of projects, Aquino said: “(All the released funds were spent) to the last peso and centavo.

“If, for example, P100.10 was allocated (for a project), the (NIA) finance (office) obligated P100.10. The (same amount) has been reflected by the one that awarded the contract, and the contractor was also paid (the full amount of) P100.10.”

`Painful’ to taxpayers

But what the President considered “painful” to the taxpayers was that NIA’s accomplishment rate of an average of 60 percent, year after year. “How could you—what did you spend the money on when you did not finish the project?” he asked.

Based on records provided by the DBM to the President, this rather questionable practice happened “almost every year and has become a trend,” said Aquino.

The Aquino administration took flak early this year for the 7.5-percent unemployment rate in April (compared with 6.9 percent for the same period in 2012), which was mainly due to a drop in jobs in the agriculture sector.

In its defense, Malacañang said agriculture officials had explained that this was due to a delayed planting season triggered by extreme heat and late arrival of the rainy season.

Relying on rainwater

At the NIA anniversary, the President himself noted that many farmers would still rely on rainwater because of the shortage of irrigation facilities across the country.

Despite the government pouring in funds for agriculture for decades, the sector, considered the backbone of the economy, continues to reel under low productivity, compromising rice and overall food self-sufficiency of both the Arroyo and Aquino administrations.

After uncovering NIA’s long track record of inefficiencies, Aquino said he had ordered a Cabinet investigation to ascertain if these inefficiencies could be traced to possible corrupt practices at the agency.

He said Nangel faced the National Economic and Development Board following the NIA anniversary to explain the lackluster performance of the agency, particularly in irrigating new farmlands.

Instead of appeasing the appointing authority, Nangel further incurred the ire of the President. “I don’t want to regret (having appointed him) at this point in time,” Aquino said.

However, the President said that a DBM report pointed to a telltale sign: for the last 23 years, every peso allocated to NIA had been “obligated and disbursed” by the agency “to the last peso or last centavo.”

The President said this was in order if the agency had accomplished 100 percent of the work. “But you paid 100 percent for only 60-percent work, that’s not OK,” he said.

He said the irregularity seemed to concern only “new areas for irrigation” which had registered a high 80-percent accomplishment rate to as low as 30 percent versus the target they themselves set.”

However, the budgetary item under “rehabilitation” of irrigation facilities recorded 114 percent for several years, he said.

“So the question, of course, if you think about possible (malfeasance): why did the rehabilitation (program) surpass 100 percent, but the new (areas for irrigation) couldn’t even reach 100 percent?” Mr. Aquino asked.

This, he said, reminded him of the public works’ penchant in the past for road projects such as “regraveling” and dredging.

“There might be a NIA version for those (money-making projects). But I’m not making accusations at this point,” he said, disclosing that he had ordered the executive secretary, the DBM and other agencies “to look into this.”

He was still hopeful that fixing NIA’s irrigation practices would contribute to “significantly higher agricultural output.”

He said that with the significant annual budget given to the NIA, it was but right for farmers to expect support from the agency. “It will be hard to accept—once it would be proven—that the services are (all for show), and this we won’t allow to happen,” he said.

Warning NIA officials who either “cheated” the government, or planned these irregularities, he said: “Don’t take it against me. I’ve been pleading with you for so long. If these (NIA) people don’t want to listen (to me), concerned agencies in charge of (dealing with) corrupt ones would take care of them,” said Aquino.