Aquino: No more conduit NGOs for gov’t funds

President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – In addition to the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or “pork barrel”, President Benigno Aquino III on Friday said budgetary allocations for government projects can no longer be disbursed to nongovernment organizations.

“There are those who treat the PDAF as their own private fund, to use as they please…The shocking revelations of this misuse—the latest being the COA Special Audit Report in the 2007-2009 PDAF which was released this past week–are truly scandalous,” said Aquino in his speech at Malacañang.

The announcement came a week after the Commission on Audit released a special report revealing various anomalies involving the PDAF.

COA discovered that 82 conduit NGOs, which received P6.15 billion for 772 projects, used names of board and bar passers for their list of beneficiaries.

The special report, made public on August 16, also said all beneficiaries visited by state auditors denied receiving any assistance.

Of the P12.018 billion in taxpayers’ money allocated to the pork barrel, only about 10 to 20 percent were spent on the actual projects.

Ten of the 82 NGOs were linked to Janet Lim-Napoles, alleged mastermind of the reported P10 billion pork barrel scam.

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