COA to DOT: Tap P15.2 M idle funds

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) has directed the tourism department to utilize its Tourism Development Fund (TDF), which has remained idle at the National Treasury the past seven years.

 In a 2014 report released over the weekend, state auditors said the fund accumulated to P15.268 million as of Dec. 31, 2014 and is deposited as Special Fund in the treasury.

 The COA report said the money has remained unutilized since its establishment in 2009 because the Department of Tourism (DOT) failed to formulate the guidelines on the operations of the fund and a Special Budget on its use under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2015.

 “As a result, the benefits expected from the implementation of tourism plans, programs, projects and activities chargeable against the Fund were not realized,” state auditors noted.

 The COA report said the TDF is a special fund created under the Tourism Act of 2009 for the development, promotion and marketing of tourism and other projects of the DOT to boost tourism and its industry in the country.

 With the money unused, state auditors said “funds which are intended to finance tourism plans, programs, and other projects that will support the tourism efforts in the country are left idle in the National Treasury.”

“As a result, the expected benefits from the utilization thereof were not realized,” the audit team added, urging DOT officials to direct the Undersecretary for Tourism Regulation, Coordination and Resource Generation and/or other concerned officials to formulate the plans and programs that will make use of the TDF.