Senate committee to look into NFA accounts in US

The Senate committee on agriculture will look into the dollar accounts of the National Food Authority (NFA) in the United States to determine whether they are legal.

Senate President Pro Tempore Manny Villar, who chairs the committee, said it was not surprising for the NFA to have dollar accounts because of its rice importations.

Villar, however, said the issue is who are maintaining or controlling the accounts.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. earlier disclosed that the NFA had two deposits in the Union Bank of California in San Francisco amounting to $186,000 and $77,000.

Even if the deposits were legal, Pimentel said they were questionable because government agencies are encouraged to keep their accounts in Philippine banks and report their yearly earnings to the executive and legislative departments.

In a statement, NFA administrator Anthony Abad said he welcomes the Senate inquiry in aid of legislation.

When he took over the NFA last March, Abad said he issued a general directive to tighten fiscal controls and provide closer coordination among the agency’s internal audit and administrator’s office and the Commission on Audit.

Abad said he was still studying "whether there was anything untoward in the NFA’s 20-year-old practice of maintaining foreign exchange accounts abroad." — Aurea Calica