COA FLAGS DILG OVER P 577-M UNSPENT PANDEMIC FUNDS

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) failed to fully make use of its P4.038 billion COVID-19 budget for 2021, with P577.053 million in unused funds reverting to the general fund, according to state auditors.

The money was meant to pay for the hiring of 15,510 contact tracers last year and other pandemic-related expenses of the DILG’s regional offices, which received downloaded funds.

But the Commission on Audit (COA) found that P444.574 million of the unutilized funds were with the DILG central office.

“While the target number of contact tracers to be hired during the year was met, the funds allocated under the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act and 2021 General Appropriations Act were not fully utilized,” a 2021 audit report on the DILG read.

As a result, the unused funds of P436,897,579.38 under the 2021 budget and P140,155,646.61 under continuing allotments, or a total of P577.053 million, reverted to the general fund.

The unused P577.053 million is 14.29 percent of the P4.038 billion that the DILG received in 2021 for its pandemic response.

“Funds were not fully utilized and later reverted to the unappropriated surplus of the general fund due to change of plans and funds intended for payment to contact tracers were not fully downloaded/transferred to regional offices and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), among others,” the COA said.

The audit body advised the DILG to “maximize” its utilization of its allotments “through proper planning and timely implementation” of its planned activities.

In response, the agency assured that its operating units will consider the COA’s recommendation to maximize the use of its COVID-19 funds.

Of the DILG’s P4.038 billion COVID-19 funds, P3.525 billion was downloaded to its regional offices and P512.467 million remained with the DILG central office.

For 2021, incurred obligations reached P3.460 billion, with P3.392 billion in obligations incurred by regional offices, and P67.893 million from the DILG central office.

This means that the regional offices were able to allot 96.24 percent of the P3.525 billion downloaded funds, leaving an unused balance of P132.478 million.

The DILG central office, on the other hand, allotted only 13.25 percent of its P512.467 million fund for pandemic response, leaving an untapped balance of P444.574 million.

State auditors learned that the DILG central office’s low fund utilization “was traced mostly to unutilized allotments for other general services in the amount of P343,166,192.”

This sum is 77.18 percent of the DILG central office’s unutilized allotment where the salaries of contact tracers are charged.

The COA found that the DILG central office has no funding allocation for the hiring of contact tracers. This is because the DILG regional offices are in charge of hiring contact tracers and receiving funds from the central office based on their requirements.

The DILG said the funds with its central office were earmarked for the hiring of administrative staff to support its operations and reportorial requirements in relation to contact tracing; payment for contact tracers; and funding for BARMM’s contact tracing requirements.

However, the DILG central office did not hire additional administrative staff and tapped its current personnel instead.

As to the payment for contact tracers, some of the funds were not released in full to the regional offices because of delayed submissions of required documents from contact tracers, while some were hired in the middle of the six-month period.

As to the BARMM, funds were not immediately released because of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government’s (MILG) failure to liquidate the previous year’s fund transfers.

The MILG-BARMM was also called out for failing to submit monthly reports of disbursements on the P 67.89 million it received from the DILG central office to pay for contact tracers.