Sunday, December 20, 2015

OPAPP has P691 million unliquidated DAP funds: COA

From Malaya Business Insight (Dec 21): OPAPP has P691 million unliquidated DAP funds: COA

THE Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) has yet to account for at least P691 million funds it received from the national government under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), the Commission on Audit said.

In an audit report on the OPAPP released last December 18, state auditors said the agency received DAP funds of P1.819 billion in 2011 and P248.253 million in 2013 or a total of P2.067 billion.
 
Out of this sum, OPAPP transferred P1.46 billion to various implementing agencies (IAs) but only P798.042 million has been liquidated, leaving a balance of P662,492,805.81 as of yearend 2014.

Auditors noted that P29,441,500 transferred by the IA’s to implementing partners (IPs) were simply treated as “liquidations” even if actual usage has not been documented, thereby increasing the unliquidated DAP to P691.93 million.

“We reviewed the schedule of unliquidated DAP Funds transferred to IAs…which showed fund transfers totaling P440,062,277.55 were still carried in the books in their original amounts. We cannot determine whether or not the projects had been implemented,” auditors said.

Verification letters sent by the COA to the OPAPP seeking clarification received no response.

“Management did not reply to our communication dated November 6, 2014 for the updated detailed list of all projects, fund releases, target dates of completion and project status,” the COA said.

Sought for comment, the OPAPP said it is looking into the COA report. 
 
“We have received your query. Give us time within the day to respond. Thanks!”  Darwin Dee of the OPAPP communications office said in a text message on behalf of Peace Adviser Teresita Deles.

No update, however, has been given by OPAPP as of 7 p.m.

Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said MalacaƱang also needs to verify the report first before it could comment.

In a ruling issued on July 1, 2014, the Supreme Court declared parts of the DAP as unconstitutional which it affirmed in a subsequent resolution dated February 3, 2015, but the OPAPP has only remitted P198.74 million unused DAP to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr).

However, several projects supposed to be implemented by national government agencies chosen by the OPAPP to implement them did not move past the planning stage despite the lapse of three years since the DAP budget was released in 2011.

These include the P112.5 million road concreting project in Barangay Makir, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao and the P80 million Ganassi-Lamud Road concreting project in South Upi also in Maguindanao.

Both had the Armed Forces of the Philippines as implementing agency.
“The original check of P80 million and two checks worth P56,250 each for AFP were cancelled as stale checks on November 29, 2012. They were replaced by (new) checks dated December 19, 2013. We learned from the Project Monitoring Office that projects for the funds transferred to the AFP…remained unimplemented as of December 31, 2014,” the COA said. 

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/opapp-has-p691-million-unliquidated-dap-funds-coa

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