5 NFA personnel axed over typhoon-damaged palay

Five personnel of the National Food Authority (NFA) office in Central Luzon have been relieved from their posts for misclassifying and procuring typhoon-damaged palay.

NFA Region 3 director Amadeo de Guzman told NFA administrator Renan Dalisay that a quality audit of palay stocks procured in Nueva Ecija showed the samples fell below the agency standard.

The audit revealed a total of 32,695 bags of poor quality palay were piling up at the NFA warehouse.

Relieved were warehouse supervisor and solar dryer engineer Edmar Torres, quality control officers Cesar Paul de Guia and Adam Rayo, acting pest control officer Leo Thereso Ramos and acting provincial quality assurance officer Jimmy Mallari.

“I noticed the piles of palay stocks at the solar drying area increasing,” De Guzman said.

He said he instructed acting regional quality assurance officer Zenaida Garcia to conduct quality audit and to determine if the stocks conform with the NFA standards.

The bags of palay were reportedly damaged during the onslaught of Typhoon Lando in October.

Even before Lando hit land, Dalisay had asked for P350 million from the Department of Budget and Management to enable the NFA to procure typhoon-damaged palay from farmers.

The DBM rejected the request, thereby the procurement was not allowed.

Meanwhile, 10 other NFA employees in Nueva Ecija were subjected to questioning in connection with the procurement.

Results of the investigation will be made basis for the filing of administrative cases against the concerned employees.