COA asks Capitol: Why park P280M in banks?

Audit reports on government agencies don’t just point to the allegedly wasteful use of taxpayers’ funds. These also point out missed opportunities to use these funds for public services.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said, for example, that the Cebu Provincial Government has P280 million in trust funds that were kept in time deposits and special savings accounts as of the end of 2016.

These funds, COA added, could have been used for the specified purposes, such as fixing seaweed farms, building emergency centers, and improving a warehouse and laboratory for a tuberculosis-treatment program.

About a quarter of the amount or around P71.9 million was in a trust fund for projects that were supposed to be implemented using Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) that legislators were entitled to from 2009 to 2013.

Provincial Treasurer Emmanuel Guial told state auditors that the Capitol placed these trust funds in time deposits and special savings accounts to keep them from being idle.

COA also said that P25 million left over from completed projects should have been turned over to the national treasury. The PDAF should also have been given back to the treasury after the Supreme Court ruled against the “pork barrel.”

More than P280 million in trust funds donated by national agencies and officials to the Cebu Provincial Government were found to have been placed in time deposits and special savings accounts.

In its 2016 audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) called the Province’s attention to their failure to use their deposited trust funds, which could benefit their constituents.

State auditors recommended to the Province to refrain from placing trust funds in time deposits and special savings accounts, and use them in accordance with their purposes.

But Provincial Treasurer Emmanuel Guial said that the P280-million trust funds placed in time deposit and special savings accounts were not meant for investment but to protect them from being idle.

The state audit found out that the P280 million kept by the Province in time deposits and special savings accounts were for unimplemented projects, such as the rehabilitation of seaweed and aqua farms by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources; and establishment of provincial emergency centers and the repair and enhancement of warehouse and laboratory for the Department of Health’s TB-DOTS program.

Of the amount, P71.9 million was for unimplemented projects sourced from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of legislators, which the Province received from 2009 to 2013.

The amount also included unused Philhealth capitation funds worth P49.5 million received by the Province from 2008 to 2014.

The amount could have been used to buy medicines and equipment for Province-owned hospi- tals for indigents in line with the Philhealth’s Primary Care Benefit Program, state auditors noted.

Also, at least P25 million of the unused funds are “excess funds” or leftover money from completed projects, which must be turned over to the national treasury or to the source agency.

State auditors recommended that any unused balance of completed projects should be returned to the source agency in compliance with COA Circular 94-013.

State auditors also suggested that unused PDAF should be returned to the national treasury.

During the exit conference, Guial said that the Province agreed to return unused funds of completed projects to source agencies before the end of this year.

The Provincial Planning and Development Office was also tasked to check the status of implemented and unimplemented projects.