DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said that, contrary to a Commission on Audit (COA) report, only P1.6 billion in conditional cash transfer (CCT) funds remained unliquidated by the Philippine Postal Corp. (Philpost), and not P5 billion.
“It is now unclear to the DSWD if the P5 billion is all CCT funds or if it also covers other activities of the postal agency,” Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said in a statement. “Based on our records, it is only P1.6 billion. And they are continuing to liquidate this amount.”
The DSWD issued the clarification on Thursday following a COA report that said the postal agency had accumulated P5 billion in unliquidated CCT funds.
As part of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the DSWD entered into an agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines to distribute the cash grants to their poor beneficiaries, with Landbank contracting other conduits such as Philpost and G-Cash to help disburse the grants.
Philpost is supposed to liquidate the funds with Landbank. The bank then furnishes the DSWD with the liquidation reports.
The DSWD said it based the P1.6-billion figure on Landbank’s report to the department.
“Philpost was chosen as a conduit because it has the capacity to distribute the cash grants even to the beneficiaries living in remote barangays. With Philpost going to their areas, the beneficiaries only have to spend a maximum of P100 to claim their cash grants,” Soliman said.
Due to the rising unliquidated amounts, Landbank ended its arrangement with Philpost in June.
“The process of liquidation is a continuing activity. It requires the submission of documentation of program implementation until all expenditures are fully accounted for,” Soliman said.
Cited as reasons for the delay in liquidating the funds were a lack of manpower due to Philpost’s rationalization program and an unexpected increase in the volume of transactions.
“It is only for Philpost that Landbank gives the funds and the schedule of distribution in advance,” Soliman said.
For G-Cash, the private Globe Telecom pays the beneficiaries from its own funds and is then reimbursed by Landbank.
Soliman said the DSWD was improving the public–private partnership (PPP) to ensure that the cash grants went to the rightful poor beneficiaries.
The DSWD has set up a beneficiary data management system in which the information about households is regularly updated and verified. This is aside from the Grievance Redress System, which processes complaints and queries about the PPP.
The PPP withholds immediately cash grants to dubious households.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment. We continue to work with utmost dignity and stand by the integrity of our programs and services,” Soliman said.