COA flags Ormoc City over failure to use funds for Typhoon Odette victims

The Commission on Audit (COA) called out the Ormoc City government over its failure to use over P9 million worth of financial assistance from the Office of the President which was supposed to aid victims of Typhoon Odette in December 2021.

In its 2022 annual audit report on Ormoc City, state auditors said that the P9 million financial aid for typhoon victims was not utilized before it was due for return to the National Treasury on December 31, 2022.

The P9 million is broken down to P4,702,177 charged against the Contingent Fund in 2021 and another batch worth P4,397,080 which was also charged to the Contingent Fund in the same year.

“Further verification disclosed that funds under Batches 1 and 2 were not utilized. Neither were these reverted to the National Treasury on December 31, 2022,” the COA said.

“In a hard copy submitted by the Accounting Office on the composition of the Due to National Government Agencies (NGAs) account under the subsidiary Ledger of the Office of the President, these funds were included thereto with the Remarks stating that the remaining funds are allocated for capital outlay projects per Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund Annual Investment Program for year 2022,” state auditors added.

These capital outlay projects for 2022 charged to the P9 million 2021 Contingent fund include:

• communications equipment (P 6,200,500),
• disaster response and rescue equipment (P1,498,757), and
• technical and scientific equipment (P1.4 million).

COA said this non-utilization of the 2021 contingent fund provided by the Office of the President to aid typhoon victims was contrary to the guidelines provided in Sections 3.5 and 3.8 of Local Budget Circular No. 140, “hence depriving the constituents of the benefits of the rehabilitation and recovery from the effects of Typhoon Odette.”

Local Budget Circular No. 140 provides that the financial assistance to LGUs should be used for disaster risk reduction and management, specifically for disaster response, rehabilitation, and recovery.

In addition, Local Budget Circular No. 140 also states that the specific programs, projects, and activities (PPAs) that may be implemented should be consistent with the allowable PPAs prescribed under items 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5 of NDRRMC-DBM-Department of the Interior and Local Government Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2013-1 dated March 25, 2013.

“The delay in the utilization of the fund transfers from the Office of the President for the qualified PPAs before it was due for return on the prescribed period deprived the intended beneficiaries of the benefits that could have been derived therefrom, specifically on rehabilitation and recovery after the devastation of Typhoon Odette. We recommended that the City Mayor direct the heads of the departments responsible, to submit justifications for non-utilization of the funds within the prescribed period,” COA said.

“We recommended that the City Mayor direct the heads of the departments responsible, to submit justifications for non-utilization of the funds within the prescribed period. Also, we recommended that the City Treasurer and City Accountant should prepare the disbursement voucher for the return to the National Treasury pursuant to Section 3.8 of LBC No. 140, the unutilized amount totaling P9,099,257,” COA added.

In 2021, Richard Gomez was Ormoc City’s mayor. He is now a Leyte representative.

In response to COA’s findings, the Ormoc City government said that some flaws in the procurement led to the delayed or non-delivery by the awarded supplier of the equipment to be procured out of the funds from the Office of the President’s Contingent Fund.

As a result, the Service Chief of the Technical Audit Services Group of COA Region 8 who also attended the exit conference advised the management on the proper procedure to rescind the contract/purchase order on this particular procurement and to blacklist said supplier for failing to deliver on time leading to the expiry of the utilization of the fund from the Office of the President.

In addition, the Supervising Auditor advised the Ormoc City government to make representations with the source agency to possibly retain the fund so they could still use it for the intended purpose.

GMA News Online has reached out to the office of Congressman Gomez, but they had yet to respond as of posting time. — DVM, GMA Integrated News