COA says DA paid more for seedlings

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit has uncovered anomalies at the Department of Agriculture in Central Visayas, including the purchase of 37,692 fruit tree seedlings for P6.9 million, or P3,085,560 more than what should have been the right price.

State auditors said had prudence been made in the purchase of the seedlings like grafted durian, lanzones longkong, grafted mango and pomelo, more farmers could have availed of the seedlings and this may have led to a higher production yield and lower price of farm products.

The grant of certified seeds and fertilizer subsidies to qualified farmers is part of President Gloria Arroyo’s program intended to increase farmers’ production.

The DA-7 regional office had entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Samahan ng mga Manininda ng Prutas sa Gabi Foundation, Inc. for the implementation of various livelihood activities and projects under Arroyo’s program.

When the state auditors reviewed the financial transactions of the DA-7 they found out that the SMPGFI purchased 37,692 fruit trees seedlings from the WM Sprouts Center in Zamboanga City.

COA then made a canvass from other suppliers of said fruit trees species to determine price reasonableness and found out that the overall cost of the purchased seedlings was overpriced.

For grafted durian, the SMPGFI claimed they purchased each of the 6,346 grafted seedlings at P162.50 but COA said it could be bought only at P80 from other sources.

SMPGFI also said they bought 10,000 seedlings of lanzones longkong at P250 each, but the state auditors said other supplier sells each of said seedlings at only P120.

Grafted mango seedlings was reportedly bought also at P162.50 but in other sources it can be purchased for P90, while a seedling of Pomelo was also purchased by SMPGFI for P162.50 when it can be had for P135 from other suppliers.

COA advised the DA-7 officials to require the SMPGFI to refund the amount of P3,085,560 representing the overpriced purchased of seedlings.

Meanwhile, it was also found out that the P2 million that was released by the DA for the construction of a farm-to-market road in Panglao, Bohol, was instead used in the concreting of a road at a residential area without nearby farms.

As of December 31, about P94.1 million-worth of projects of the P261-million budget for farm-to-market roads were still not implemented due to the delay in the bidding process.

Distribution of Fertilizer Discount Coupons not fully achieved

Arroyo’s objective of helping the farmers achieve higher rice production by timely and proper application of fertilizers was not fully attained due to the increase of fertilizer cost and the refusal of some fertilizer suppliers to accept Fertilizer Discount Coupons.

The guideline were that the FDCs shall be distributed to farmers for the wet cropping season from May to October but because the arrival of the FDCs was delayed it was not fully used.

Based on the computation, every hectare of farm lands needs six bags of fertilizers. The DA will provide two coupons to the farmers for every hectare of farms where they can get P250 discounts for every bag of fertilizers. The local government units are also required to provide the same benefits for the remaining four bags of fertilizers per hectare.

But some local government in Central Visayas did not adopt the “two-four strategy” where the LGU’s are required to shoulder the amount of discounts for the four bags of fertilizers in every hectare due to lack of budget.

The procedure is that the accredited suppliers of fertilizers will submit the coupon to the Department of Agriculture and claim the payment. But some fertilizer dealers refused to honor the coupons after the government failed to pay them on time.

In Cebu and other parts of the region, the national government issued 128,000 coupons amounting to P32 million, but 13,372 coupons were not used because the FDC’s came late.

The fertilizer dealers also increased the prices of their products up to P300 per bag after learning of the government’s subsidy program.

Meanwhile, some farmers also complained because some of the accredited dealers were too far from their locations that cost them more for the transportation expenses in bringing the bags of fertilizers.

The farmers complained that the expenses they incurred during their several trips to the fertilizer dealers to redeem their discounts were greater that the amount of the discount coupons that they have received.

The state auditors recommended that DA-7 should first monitor the prices of fertilizers before the issuance of accreditation to the suppliers and to see to it that there will be no increase in fertilizer cost during the project implementation. – Rene U. Borromeo/BRP   (THE FREEMAN)