The Commission on Audit has described as “illegal” the disbursement of P6.94 million in funds for development projects by the San Miguel municipal government in 2021 for lack of an approved ordinance.
In its review of the past year’s transactions, the COA audit team stated that in April 2021, the LGU passed Municipal Resolution No. 037-2021 approving the realignment and reappropriation of funds and projects under the 20% Development Fund totaling P6.94 million.
Instead of pursuing the original plan consisting of six road concreting projects in District II, District III, Siay, Tobrehon, J.M. Alberto and Obo as well as the rehabilitation of the farm-to-market road at San Marcos, the LGU reappropriated the amount to the P2.5 million repair of the multi-purpose covered court, P2 million repair and rehabilitation of the San Marcos hanging bridge, and as counterpart funds of P2.44-M for the KALAHI-CIDSS project.
The resolution stated that due to the devastation wrought by typhoon Rolly, several projects funded under the 20% DF for 2021 had to be realigned and reappropriated to respond to the needs of the municipality. It also pointed to the need to give counterpart funds for the KALAHI-CIDSS program.
However, the audit disclosed that the realignment and reappropriation was not covered by an appropriation ordinance providing for a supplemental budget while there was no certification on the availability of funds issued by the local treasurer.
As the agency discontinued several projects in order to fund new projects which were not included in the Annual Budget, the COA said this is clearly a case of change in the annual budget, hence, an appropriation ordinance covering a supplemental budget should have been enacted,
“The supplemental budget should have provided for the reversion of the savings from discontinued PPAs and its corresponding re-appropriation,” it stressed. “Accordingly, the appropriation ordinance shall be subject to review by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.”
In another finding, the team said that the LGU failed to utilize P190,000 provided by the congressional office in March 2019 for the procurement of a Multicab, with the funds remaining idle for almost three years due to the project’s non-implementation.
LGU officials said that the municipal government was unable to implement the project because the estimated price of the vehicle had already escalated.
The audit team, however, pointed out that the municipality did not undertake the necessary corrective measures such as requesting additional funds or the infusion of counterpart funds from the LGU.
It added that if the project was no longer feasible, the LGU could have opted to return the fund so it could be used to finance other priority projects of the source agency, instead of becoming idle in the custody of the municipality.
It also noted that there was no memorandum of agreement between the congressional office and the LGU, which may have contributed to the delay or non-implementation of the project because the terms and conditions of the transfer, particularly the period of implementation and submission of accomplishment and liquidation reports were not set forth.
Among the other significant findings in the report include: deficiencies in the acquisition of food items for the implementation of the P1.1-million Supplementary Feeding Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which did not pass through proper procurement procedures; lack of MOA covering the disbursement of P2.42 million counterpart funding to 24 barangays for the KALAHI-CIDSS project; and lapses in planning and project supervision that led to the failure to complete the P1.5-million Mabato footbridge and the P300,000 rehabilitation and improvement of Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).
The COA, however, commended the municipality for substantially implementing programs and projects under the 20% Development Fund, with 21 of 24 projects completed.
All 34 projects under the disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and rehabilitation funded under the CY 2021 Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund were also fully implemented within the year, the COA stated.