Spoilage a recurring occurrence in DSWD bodegas – COA

Aside from rotten sacks of rice and spoiled food packs in 2014, spoilage of millions of pesos worth of relief goods intended for calamity victims appeared to have become a usual occurrence in bodegas of the Department of Social Welfare Development (DSWD) since super typhoon “Yolanda” struck three years ago.

This time, the Commission on Audit (COA) disclosed some 111.89 worth of canned sardines meant as relief goods for calamity victims were spoiled anew last year, with state auditors blaming the delay in the “establishment of a sound relief goods inventory” by the DSWD as the culprit.

In 2014, 165 sacks of rice and at least 12.78 million of 7,527 food packs for Yolanda survivors were wasted due to “improper handling”.

Earlier that year, packs of noodles and a good number of sacks of rice were declared rotten and unhealthy for human consumption. COA described the lack of order in the distribution of relief goods as ‘chaotic.”

“The delayed establishment of a sound relief goods inventory system resulted in the spoilage of an estimated 111.896 million worth of sardines and the non-recording of 111.752 million to Welfare Goods for Distribution Inventory which was erroneously recorded as Financial Assistance to NGAs, resulting in the misstatement in both accounts,” COA said in its 2015 annual audit report for the DSWD.

State auditors recalled that a year before, they have noted lapses in the “procurement and acceptance of relief goods” because the DSWD has failed to calculate the absorptive capacity and condition of warehousing facilities and its personnel, the shelf life or expiry dates of food items and the amount of available stocks.

In October, 20155, auditors discovered anew spoiled food items during an ocular inspection of goods purchased by the DSWD for typhoon Lando victims.

“On the overall, the deficiencies could have been mitigated or totally avoided had adequate internal control been observed at the NROC. As it is, there has been lax inspection and monitoring on their part which resulted in the delayed discovery of the subject incident on Gold Cup sardines,” said COA.

The state audit agency asked DSWD to look into the causes of the spoilage, leakage or bulging of the “subject sardines and make necessary action to avoid the same incidents from happening again.”

COA also called for the blacklisting of suppliers that may have delivered goods with near expiry dates.

In the same audit report, COA revealed that it has found “deficiencies/ gaps in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program’s information system that include the following: a) compliant beneficiaries excluded/suspended from payroll; b) retro payments not verifiable on Grievance system and paid only after two (2) years; and, c) existence of duplicate entries in the 4Ps payroll had affected the efficient implementation of the program.

At least 327 names of beneficiaries were duplicated in the payroll that could have cost government 11.7 million in additional payments.

Delays in the distribution of cash were also noted with beneficiaries being denied their due share of the doleout for a period ranging from 12 to 15 months.

COA said the delay has been caused by any of the following reasons: absence of partner conduit to service areas, lack of capital funds and delay in the processing and release of checks.