COA to Tuburan: Don’t spend unobligated disaster fund balance

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit wants the municipal government of Tuburan, Cebu to refrain from spending the unexpended or unobligated balance of the appropriation for the Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund (LDRRMF) in the next five years.

In its 2012 audit report, COA discovered that the P5.9 million unexpended LDRRMF balance for the past two years was not transferred to a Special Trust account as mandated by law.

COA said this “may result in the improper use of the said funds, other than for disaster risk reduction and management activities of the LDRRMC within the next five years.”

In 2012, the municipality of Tuburan, set aside the amount of P4.1 million in its annual budget for the LDRRMF.

In the same year, the total expenditures incurred reached P1.9 million leaving an unexpended balance of the appropriation of P2.2 million.

Likewise in 2011, the unexpended balance of the same fund amounted to P3.7 million.

Section 21 of Republic Act 10121, otherwise known as the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, mandates that unexpended/unobligated balance of the LDRRMF at the end of the year starting in 2011 shall accrue to a special trust fund, solely for the purpose of supporting disaster risk reduction and management activities of the LDRRMC within the next five (5) years.

Any such amount still not fully utilized after five years shall revert back to the general fund and will be available for other services to be identified by the local sanggunian.

COA also noted that the amount and details of the unexpended balance of LDRRMF was not indicated or presented in the Notes to the Financial Statements.

To correct this deficiency, COA recommended for the municipality to direct the municipal accountant to transfer the unexpended/unobligated balance of LDRRMF for CY 2011 and 2012 to a special trust fund in the Trust Fund.

The municipality led by Mayor Democrito Diamante Jr. has assured the Audit Team to comply with the recommendation by drawing a Journal Entry Voucher (JEV) to take the unexpended balance of appropriation on LDRRMF under the trust fund books. MIT (FREEMAN)