COA to PhilForest: Find P1-M missing goats

MANILA, Philippines - This time, the Commission on Audit (COA) is not only ferreting out missing public funds but also 47 missing goats bought for about P1 million for breeding purposes in the countryside.

In a 2013 audit report released Thursday, COA directed the Philippine Forest Corp. (PFC) – a government-owned and controlled corporation under the National Resources Development Corp. supervised by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – to find the missing goats bought in 2008 for propagation in the countryside with the help of a goat farm.

COA said “the intention to propagate goats was not attained since there was nothing recovered from the 47 heads of goats that were dispersed to a goat farm in 2008 due to lack of dutiful monitoring and reporting as to the status of the animals.”

This resulted in wastage of government funds with the total value of the breeding stocks amounting to P960,000 or P1.008 million if work and/or other animals worth P47,500 are to be included in the computation, state auditors said.

Records show that on Feb. 28, 2008, the PFC signed a memorandum of agreement with the beneficiary goat farm. The PFC transferred 47 goats, including 14 pure breed Australian Boers, to the farm.

Under the agreement, the government may take possession of the original goats at any time, for any reason except for their offspring that would be owned by the beneficiary goat farm through sharing.

The deal also states among others that PFC and beneficiary goat farm would have a “50-50” percent sharing whenever a doe gives birth to two offspring, with PFC having the preferred right to obtain the male.

The goat dispersal agreement was a livelihood project that was expected to open employment opportunities for the benefit of unemployed farmers and laborers in the countryside.

But a report dated Aug. 31, 2011 submitted by the PFC team that visited the goat farm disclosed that the goats, except for one original and its two offspring or a total of three, were no longer around due to changing weather conditions.