COA: 60% of paid 4PS beneficiaries in 2020–2022 not on Listahanan 2

Over 60% beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) in 2020, 2021 and 2022 received P147 million in payout even amid exclusion from the Listahanan 2 or the complete database for the program, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

In its 2023 annual audit report on the DSWD uploaded to its website last month, COA said that of the 14,004 paid beneficiaries from 2020 to 2022 of 4Ps—the conditional cash transfer program for the poorest of the poor—9,553 or 68.22% were not listed in the Listahanan 2 identified by COA as the complete database in 2020 alone.

By 2021, the 4PS beneficiaries who received payment even though they were not in the Listahanan 2 database were reduced to 64.67% or 9,057 out of the 14,004.

In 2022, the 4PS beneficiaries who received payment further decreased to 60.68% or 8,498 out of the 14,004 4Ps beneficiaries included in the Listahanan 2.

“Although there was a gradual decrease for the last two years, the percentage is still considered material,” COA said.

Upon COA’s validation, state auditors identified the following reasons for the non-inclusion of these paid 4Ps beneficiaries to the Listahanan 2 database:

• inability of the enumerators to assess/ and include some families in the barangay/province/region especially in the far flung and very poor/marginalized communities;
• the name of the grantees paid in the 4Ps payroll differ from the heads of the  families identified in the Listahanan database; and change of location of the 4Ps beneficiaries.

COA then said that the reasons for non-inclusion violates the 2019 4Ps law which provides that “farmers, including  farm workers, fisher folks, homeless families, IPs, those in the informal settler sector, those in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas including those in areas without  electricity, PWDs and other vulnerable groups, should be automatically included in the standardized targeting system to be conducted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.”

“The enumerators commissioned by the DSWD to assess the circumstances/situations of households were not able to reach out and assess other far flung areas and very poor/marginalized communities so that their output is a more inclusive Listahanan,” COA said.

Of the 5,825 total beneficiaries interviewed, 1,288 or 22.11% also said that there were no enumerators who came to their household to conduct assessments/enumerations.

“The beneficiaries stated that they were not visited by the DSWD to validate/confirm the work of the enumerators and determine if they had thoroughly made house to house visits so that all possible households could be included  in the Listahanan. It was only in 2023 that DSWD tapped the City/Municipal Links and other DSWD available social worker through the use of the Social Welfare and Development Indicators (indicators) that the existing 4Ps beneficiaries not listed in the Listahanan and tagged as non-poor were visited to further assess if they will still be retained in the program,” COA said.

“Further validation revealed that there were 4Ps beneficiaries that were removed from the program or tagged as code 31 or non-poor due to the non-inclusion of 4Ps beneficiaries in the Listahanan but were not re-assessed using the SWDI. During the house-to-house visit by the Audit Team, beneficiaries subsequently tagged as code 31 or non-poor complained having difficulty in meeting their needs or in sending their children to school due to the limited monthly income that they earn,” COA added.

State auditors also said that the use of the indicators was limited to those delisted 4Ps which means there are still other poor families who were neither 4Ps beneficiaries nor found in the Listahanan excluded from the 4Ps Program.

“Based on the assessment made by the DSWD, there could be 4Ps beneficiaries no longer in the Listahanan but are still qualified as 4Ps beneficiaries, and poor families not enumerated and included therein could qualify as 4Ps beneficiaries,” COA said.

“This would mean that the issued Listahanan 3 which other government agencies are relying on to determine those eligible to avail of their programs if proven wrong or incomplete, would also deprive other deserving poor families of the appropriate assistance from the government since indicators are only used for further assessment of the existing 4Ps beneficiaries,” COA added.

DSWD response

According to the COA, the DSWD agreed to implement the following recommendations of state auditors:

• expand the targeting system to include not only those existing 4Ps beneficiaries who are not in the Listahanan but also equally poor families that were not enumerated/assessed
• assess those who were not included in the  latest Listahanan if still eligible to be included in the program
• ensure that all qualified beneficiaries of 4Ps are included in the next updated
• Listahanan and
• submit the result of the assessment made for those that were not included in Listahanan 2.

— BM, GMA Integrated News