NGOs get no cash from city–Dagupan mayor

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines—Mayor Belen Fernandez on Monday said the city government had stopped giving financial aid to nongovernment organizations (NGOs) since she assumed office last year.

Reacting to an Inquirer report that said the city had continued to provide monetary assistance to NGOs despite their failure to liquidate the funds they had previously received, Fernandez said: “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t remember giving out millions of pesos in terms of aid during my time as mayor.”

Fernandez became mayor after she defeated reelectionist Mayor Benjamin Lim in the May 2013 elections.

In a report released last week, the Commission on Audit (COA) said the Dagupan City government, under Lim, had P105.2 million in unsettled accounts as of Dec. 31, 2013. The report was posted on COA’s website (www.coa.gov.ph).

The COA said the funds were released between January 2010 and September 2013 but the NGOs that received them had yet to submit the documents that would prove project completions.

“In fact, when we assumed as mayor, we stopped it and we had always sought the advise of our COA head on the proper thing to do,” Fernandez said on her TV program, “Executive Session.”

Last year, in a news release issued by the city information office, then state (now city) auditor Virgilio Quinto said he had submitted a memorandum to Fernandez pointing out the funds had been outstanding in the city’s books from three months up to three years—a violation of a COA circular. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon