COA questions Malabon’s compliance to full disclosure policy

The Commission on Audit (COA) has reprimanded the Malabon City government for failing to comply with the full disclosure policy of the government by not posting in its website and other conspicuous place information about its budget, finances, and bids and public offerings.

In its 2016 annual audit report of the local government unit, COA also questioned the propriety of the utilization of 110.080 million for the Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) with day-care and home-based children as beneficiaries.

An audit examination of the disbursements made on the SFP showed that 54 names of barangay day-care beneficiaries were entered twice while 254 more names were listed in both the home-based center and the barangay day-care.

“Double enrolment of some beneficiaries for both Barangay Day-Care Center and Home-based Center resulted in unnecessary/double disbursement of funds under the CSWDD’s Supplementary Feeding Program,” audit examiners stated.

COA questioned Mayor Antolin Oreta III’s compliance to the full disclosure policy imposed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) under Memorandum Circular No. 2013140 and Article II, Section 28 of the Philippine Constitution.

The audit agency said the city government “has not fully complied” with the said policy and has therefore deprived “the public of updated information on how its budget is managed, disbursed and used.”

Malabon has also constricted its constituents’ information on the status of programs, projects, and activities of the city government.

According to COA, such information should have been posted in three conspicuous places – in the lobby of the City Hall, at the City of Malabon University, and the Hall of Justice.

Further, the city’s website under the full Disclosure Policy Portal was “not updated and/or incomplete.”

“We recommended that the City General Services Department and all departments concerned comply with full disclosure policy as required under DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2013140 in order to inform the constituents of Malabon City and the general public of its accomplishments and how public funds were utilized,” said COA.