Time for auditors to step in

In trying to justify the multi-billion peso fund-raising campaign of Cebu City Hall for building a new city hospital, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella said the permit requirement sought by the Ombudsman-Visayas should also be applied to other local government units (LGUs), the private sector and even churches.

The permit sought for by Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol is supposed to be issued by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to legally justify the fund-raising campaign.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama also used the Local Government Code provision that allows the LGU to raise funds for its programs in whatever way it deems fit and legal.

Labella’s blanket statement about requiring fund-raising campaigns to be covered by a DSWD permit may be unfair to the private sector, notably civil society and business sectors who don’t have the benefit of an organized bureaucracy like government and merely rely on the generosity and civic spirit of their members and followers to mobilize resources for a particular project or cause.

Take the various itinerations of the Bangon movements; Bangon Sugbo, Bangon Sugbohol, Bangon Visayas and Bangon SugBogo which are all organized by either civil society or the business sector to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake and supertyphoon Yolanda.

Due to the immediacy of the need, they and media outlets like ABS-CBN, GMA-7, TV-5, the three major dailies pooled their resources and contacts to jumpstart the fund raising drive even without major support from the government.

That it had to institute a tracking mechanism in cooperation with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation and coordinate with all sectors concerned showed the commitment to transparency and accountability that was undoubtedly sparked with reports about the practice of local officials to grab credit and grandstand with every donation they receive from donors across the country and around the world.

In contrast, the city hospital may be an immediate need but it will take several years to complete, like the rehabilitation and rebuilding programs for central Philippines that will be funded mostly by taxpayers’ money.

It is unfair of Labella to have the Ombudsman train its sights on the private sector and the Church which is among the first to mobilize people and resources for rescue and relief efforts and not on the Cebu City government which only has its City Treasurer’s Office to account for every donation given for the hospital building project.

Maybe it’s time the Commission on Audit (COA) steps in and give their expert financial advice on Cebu City’s hospital project. Then we would know whether this fund-raising campaign will need extra mechanisms to keep it honest and account for every centavo given by the donors.