Senate body endorses special audit on 'anomalous' agri fund

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate committee on agriculture has endorsed the special audit of the multi-billion peso Organic Agriculture Fund of the Department of Agriculture (DA), following allegations of misuse of the fund.

“The Committee on Finance recognizes the limitations of audit conducted by resident government auditors of the DA. A thorough examination of the books of accounts of the DA, through a special audit, is imperative to unravel the true facts surrounding the transaction in question,” the 10-page committee report read.

Thirteen senators namely committee chairman Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Sergio Osmena III, Teofisto Guingona III, Pia Cayetano, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Aquilino Pimentel III, Grace Poe, Juan Edgardo Angara. Vicente Sotto III, Maria Lourdes “Nancy” Binay and Joseph Victor Ejercito have signed the report.

Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile, who is currently under hospital arrest at the Philippine National Police General Hospital on corruption charges, also signed the committee report.

The Senate moved to amend Senate Resolution 569 that now partly reads: “Conversely, in a special audit, the audit team will examine the funds from the time it was released to the DA, OSEC, down the line to the funds released to the local government units.”

The Organic Agricultural Fund is the sum of money allocated for the line item, Promotion and Development of Organic Agriculture under the Office of the DA secretary.  The program derives its validity from Republic Act 10068 also known as Organic Agriculture Act of 2010.

The DA-OSEC’s program for the promotion and development of organic agriculture had a budget of P900 million for 2011, P927.2 million for 2012 and P887.564 million for 2013. For 2014, it has a total budget of P878.468 million.

The funds were transferred to the different implementing agencies and local government units, the report of Senate finance committee said.

Prior to the enactment of the Organic Agriculture Act, original programs on organic agriculture were undertaken by the DA.

In seeking for the special audit, Escudero noted that Commission on Audit (COA) Director Corazon Gomez, and Estelita Catubay, supervising auditor of the DA, apprised the chairman that the funds transferred to the local government are not covered in the regular audit report. This was revealed during a hearing last May 27, 2014.

Audit of the funds will be covered by the local government auditors, the COA executives told the Senate.

It can be recalled that former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. sought for the inquiry after his office was dragged into the controversy where he supposedly sought of the release of P30-million from the DA with Surigao el Sur as beneficiary of P10 million for organic farming-related activities.

In a privilege speech on Oct. 22, 2012, Pimentel denied he consented for the signing of the alleged memorandum of agreement executed between the DA and the province of Surigao del Sur dated Nov. 20, 2012.

Prior to this, Pimentel raised concerns over the issue during the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on the pork barrel on Sept. 26, 2013.