COA: DBM kept spending PDAF even after SC ruling

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) has discovered that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had continued releasing and spending money from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) last year months after the Supreme Court (SC) declared the system unconstitutional.

It was allegedly done through the re-issuance of notices of cash allocations (NCA) to replace those already lapsed.

In a 2014 report released yesterday, the COA said the DBM, in effect, proceeded with the release and use of PDAF funds for various projects amounting to a little over P15 million even after the SC ruling.

The COA found out that the DBM actually released NCA totaling P67.266 million from September to December 2013, with P15,000,784 released after the issuance of SC  decision, dated Nov. 19, 2013.

Records show that the money was released for indigent patients in hospitals, scholarships, and the construction of an academic building at the Abra State Institute of Sciences and Technology (ASIST).

“The NCAs previously issued mentioned above totaling P16,100,000 had already lapsed and in normal circumstances when government agencies needed to pay for their maturing obligation, a request from the DBM is made and DBM in return releases the NCA to the requesting agency,” the COA report said.

“However, since the abovementioned lapsed NCAs were for payments of PDAF projects which were already declared unconstitutional, these funds should not have been released by DBM.”

On Dec. 31, 2013, the DBM sought the assistance of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in seeking   clarification from the SC on the proper implementation of its ruling when it comes to already issued but lapsed NCAs, state auditors learned.

Records showed that the DBM proceeded with the re-issuance of NCAs while waiting for a ruling that was eventually issued on March 11, 2014.

The decision denied for lack of merit the prayer to allow the reissuance of NCAs issued prior to the promulgation of the SC decision of November 2013.

In a letter to COA, DBM officials claimed good faith as the re-issuance of the NCAs was done while waiting for the decision on the motion for clarification.

“With all due respect, at the time the NCAs subject of the AOM were re-issued, the SC has yet to promulgate its resolution on our Motion for Clarification which eventually denied the prayer for the DBM to re-issue lapsed NCAs,” they said.

Nothing in the original ruling prohibiting the DBM from re-issuing lapsed NCAs had permanently enjoined the release of PDAF, the DBM said.

“In fact, the SC decision expressly excluded from such prohibition the disbursement and release of PDAF already covered by NCAs issued prior to the SC decision,” officials said.

However, the COA said “the audit team believes that when the SC decision declared PDAF unconstitutional, all releases whether for obligational (SARO) and disbursement (NCA) authority must have ceased.”

“With the SC decision on the unconstitutionality of PDAF, the DBM management should have been cautious in reissuing NCA,” state auditors said.

The DBM should discontinue the re-issuance of NCAs, the COA report said.

Alcala named respondent

Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has been named a respondent in another criminal complaint filed against President Aquino, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Senate President Franklin Drilon before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday.

The new complaint centers on how the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and PDAF funds were allegedly misused in the agricultural sector in the present administration, according to Augusto Syjuco Jr., former lawmaker and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) director-general.

“According to COA, the DA likely misused about P14.4 billion of its public funds on questionable programs and projects,” read the complaint.

“COA’s report said that the DA wasted large sums of their funds on various anomalous programs and projects supposedly aimed for developments in agriculture.

“Many of these projects, which included construction of farm-to-market roads, credit financing for livestock sector and financial assistance for the cultivation of commercial crops, were left incomplete or lacked necessary documents.”

Lawmakers and the administration allegedly coursed the funds through attached agencies of the Department of Agriculture like the National Livelihood and Development Corporation (NLDC), the National Agriculture and Fisheries Council (NAFC), and the National Agribusiness Corp. (NABCOR).

Last week, Syjuco filed DAP and PDAF-related complaints against Aquino, Abad, and Drilon.

He accused them of involvement in the spending of P377 billion in lump sum appropriations during the last six years despite Supreme Court decisions declaring them as unconstitutional.