Unliquidated funds put Manila on top of DSWD ‘shame list’

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) released a “shame list” of local government units (LGUs) that have failed to liquidate funds from the agency’s daycare feeding program.

The City of Manila topped the list with P47.480 million in unliquidated funds as of June this year, followed by Cebu City with P23.432 million, Iligan City with P20.502 million, and Taguig City with P17.639 million, according to the department.

Also on the list are Cagayan de Oro with P16.938 million, Puerto Princesa with P11.632 million; Ayungon, Negros Oriental, with P10. 992 million, Iloilo City with P9.982 million, Antipolo City with P9.751 million, and Zamboanga City with P8.565 million.

The department cited only the top 10 LGUs, but the total amount for liquidation by all local governments had ballooned to over P15 billion as of last year. This was based on fund releases from 2011 to 2016, the DSWD said in a statement on Saturday.

The DSWD came up with the list after Sen. Loren Legarda, during a budget hearing last week, asked the department to identify LGUs that had become “notorious” for not liquidating funds used to implement DSWD’s Supplementary Feeding Program for children over the past six years.

Legarda, chair of the Senate finance committee, sought the information after the DSWD officer-in-charge, Usec. Emmanuel Leyco, explained that the LGUs’ failure to liquidate may cause the suspension of the program.

Leyco said the DSWD would not be able to “download” additional funds for the program until its liquidation records are reviewed by the Commission on Audit.

Leyco clarified that as of July 2017, the total unliquidated funds had already been reduced to P7.944 billion. But he pointed out that the situation remained serious because “inevitably, it is our intended beneficiaries that suffer as they are denied the assistance our programs seek to provide them.”

In the statement, Leyco stressed: “This is a ‘shame list,’ so to speak, and we really have to correct this weakness on the part of the LGU because the DSWD cannot release more funds to them to ensure the continued implementation of our program at the ground level so long as the LGUs do not liquidate.”