MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday night said the Commission on Audit (COA) report had not been officially released and that it had not been given details of the alleged irregularities and violations.
In a statement, Dennis Guerrero, chief of staff of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, said: The department “has not been given the opportunity to respond thereto. In due course, however, COA will give DA said opportunity. For all intents and purposes, the COA findings are preliminary and subject to compliance/full implementation of the recommendations contained therein.’’
He said the COA findings were “a guide to all government agencies and is not in any way a finding of guilt on the part of the officials of DA.’’
“The above notwithstanding, we submit the following explanations, subject to further clarifications:
- FMR (farm-to-market road) not fully implemented. The delay in the implementation of FMR project is due to the fact that DA’s implementing partners, the local government units, who were given initial releases, have not fully liquidated said initial releases and therefore could not be issued the next tranche. Among these FMRs are projects under the BUB and Pamana projects.
- Acef (Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund), low collection. Acef guidelines were amended to provide the proponents a chance to propose a mutually beneficial payment scheme and arrangement to ensure full implementation of the projects. The Acef National Steering Committee has likewise already reviewed several requests for loan restricting and is awaiting final approval of the Acef executive committee.
- DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program). Before it was declared unconstitutional, the DA received P4.5 billion from the DAP. Of this amount, P2 billion was transferred to the Department of Public Works and Highways for the implementation of FMR projects. Another P1 billion was used to establish a credit facility APCP (Agrarian Production Credit Program) managed by Land Bank of the Philippines.
The DA has stopped releasing funds to NGOs since 2012. New guidelines have been issued to put in place a strict accreditation process. At present, the Department of Social Welfare and Development is now the only accrediting agency and the DA is no longer accrediting any NGOs and POs (people’s organizations).”