‘NO ANOMALIES’ Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman disputes Commission on Audit findings of her department’s failure in carrying out its conditional cash transfer and core shelter programs. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman on Friday declared that no anomalies were committed in the Department of Social Welfare and Development after the Inquirer ran two stories about the adverse findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) on DSWD finances.
In a press conference, Soliman said the audit report on the DSWD did not include the replies the department submitted to the COA last month.
“The reports on the COA website did not have our answers, the management response to the audit findings, which we submitted to the COA in November,” she said.
The COA submitted its report to Soliman’s office on Dec. 15.
It found that 364,000 families not listed on the database of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program got P1.08 billion in 2013, that 21,117 “nonpoor” beneficiaries like government employees, barangay officials and overseas Filipinos received P168.12 million from the program, and that P46.50 million in “double payments” were given to 4,320 beneficiaries.
The CCT, or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), is an antipoverty program of the Aquino administration.
Among other things, the COA also found that tens of thousands of storm victims spent the past three Christmases without permanent shelters because of the DSWD’s failure to build homes despite getting a budget of P2.57 billion for housing them.
Soliman maintained that the COA merely sought documentation of the DSWD’s program implementation and did not indicate any suspicion of misuse or misappropriation of funds. She said she did not tolerate any anomalies in the department.
“We are confident that there is nothing to doubt about the DSWD’s integrity, especially with the funds that the COA cited as unliquidated in their 2013 annual audit report. The funds went to the rightful beneficiaries,” she said
She urged concerned citizens to provide the DSWD with evidence of anomalies, if any.
In a presentation, the social welfare secretary answered the COA’s findings on its implementation of the CCT program, the funds it received from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and the building of housing projects for typhoon victims.
The COA audit reported that out of the P10.626 billion in funds transferred by the DSWD to Land Bank of the Philippines for the payment of CCT beneficiaries for 2013, only P10.295 billion was used or disbursed as of Dec. 31, 2013.
This means a balance of P330.347 million or the unpaid amount for beneficiaries in eight regions, with P91.929 million in unclaimed grants of beneficiaries in the Calabarzon (Regions 4A), Western Visayas (Region 6), Central Visayas (Region 7), Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9) and Caraga (Region 13).
Soliman said the DSWD was working on the liquidation of the whole amount and that it had already liquidated 94 percent of the 2013 funds for cash grants.
“The DSWD is processing the return of cash grants intended for families tagged by our system as delisted, with reflected status as missing, no eligible member for monitoring, or moved to areas not covered by the program,” she added.
She said the department had released P189.93 billion for the CCT program, including implementing costs, over the past six years.
As of this year, the program covers 4.4 million households in 17 regions.
Soliman said the 364,036 families that the COA said were supposedly not on the database of the CCT program in 2013 had been all accounted for.
The DSWD authenticated the numbers and learned that 107,373 were covered under the regular CCT program and were both in the 4Ps and the National Household Targeting System (NHTS) databases.
The other 256,663 were under the modified CCT program, which covered street dwellers and indigenous peoples, and were considered “poor and part of the vulnerable sector.”
Soliman said households under the modified CCT households were not under the NHTS database and that the information about these beneficiaries was stored in a separate database open for COA audit.
Authenticated
As to the COA finding of 4,032 double entries of beneficiaries, the DSWD said 1,752 shared similar names, and had been authenticated and retained.
A total of 609 families were confirmed to be actual duplicates and had been delisted, while 1,636 remaining entries were still being validated.
Soliman assured the public that the DSWD was regularly validating the beneficiaries of the CCT program, with monthly compliance monitoring, family development sessions with the beneficiaries and spot checks.
“We do not give out cash grants to double entry beneficiaries until we finish validating them in our data base,” she said.
Since 2009, the DSWD, through its Grievance Redress System, has delisted 52,657 households.
A total of 232,747 households have been deactivated or are pending for validation. These are households whose accounts have been frozen because of reports of ineligibility or double entry, while awaiting results of investigation.
As to the COA finding that the DSWD failed to construct core shelters for typhoon victims, Soliman said the P2.57 billion for the project covered eight regions ravaged by five typhoons.
For victims of Tropical Storm “Sendong” (international name: Washi), 12,361 out of 16,790 core shelter units have been completed, mostly in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities.
For victims of Typhoon “Pablo” (international name: Bopha), 13,236 units have been completed, while 20,942 are being constructed mostly in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley.
She said the DSWD was not handling the funds for the construction of the core shelter units. It just turns over the funds to the local government units (LGUs) concerned.
“But we do our part by following up and monitoring the implementation of the projects by the LGUs,” she said.
Building delayed
Soliman acknowledged that construction of core shelter units had been delayed because of difficulties in looking for relocation sites, the occurrence of weather disturbances, and the 2013 elections, which meant a stoppage of construction activities.
She added that the LGUs could not use the money for the core shelter units to buy land as resettlement sites and that the funding went only to construction.
“If they are unable to implement and finish construction by the end of 2015, we will ask the LGUs to return the funds to us so we can turn it over to the treasury,” Soliman said.
For victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Hagupit),” the DSWD has allocated P4.2 billion for 211,748 shelters, with the funding to be released in January next year.
The DSWD has reported a total of 104,328 destroyed houses and 107,420 damaged houses as a result of Yolanda in 2013.
As to the P1.8 billion in funds from the DAP that the COA said was unaccounted for, Soliman said only P400 million that went to the Commission on Higher Education for student grants remained unliquidated.
She said the P1.31 billion transferred by the DSWD to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority for cash-for-training programs had been liquidated.
The secretary also mentioned that her department transferred P1.8 billion in DAP funds to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in core shelter assistance projects for displaced families, of which P1.417 billion has been liquidated.
The remaining funds are with the DSWD since the DAP has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in July.
Not quitting
Amid the COA findings, Soliman maintained that she would not quit her post and that she would continue serving in government unless President Aquino told her to go.
She said it would not be difficult for her to resign, referring to her resignation in 2005 from the DSWD as part of the “Hyatt 10” at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal during the term of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“I will continue to serve. Not unless the President says it’s time for me to exit. If he says that, then I will go,” Soliman said.
Originally posted at 6:17 pm | Friday, December 26, 2014
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