(Eagle News)–The Office of the Civil Defense on Friday, May 31, said it spent only P10,000 out of a P36.9-million donation it received for victims of the Marawi siege because it was still using the Quick Response Fund it had to “ensure expeditious delivery of services.”
OCD administrator Ricardo Jalad issued the statement after a Commission on Audit report found in its 2018 report that the “donations were not utilized to provide for the much needed support of the Marawi siege victims.”
“The poor utilization of the donated funds defeated the purpose of the donation and that the good intention of the donors for human consideration was not fully served,” the COA had said.
According to Jalad, the QRF was used to provide victims of Marawi funeral assistance, transportation assistance, food and nonfood items and family packs, to implement feeding programs in schools, to provide rice augmentation for the field office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, to reconstruct school buildings, to provide support to the Task Force Bangon Marawi, and to provide items for evacuation centers Lanao del Norte such as insulators for tents, and as aggregates for surface hardening and television sets.
Without saying specifically the source of the funds, the OCD said a total of P5,164,596,449.36 has been released for the implementation of the Marawi Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program.
According to Jalad, of this, P4.8 billion was released in 2018, while P213 million was released this year.
Jalad emphasized the donated funds were still intact and in their custody, and will form “part of the funding source for projects that will be implemented for the rehabilitation and recovery of Marawi City.”
He said of these funds, P1 million were used as support to the TFBM Field Office for their project scheduled on June 5, Ramadan, and this was not reflected in the Commission on Audit report.
“We are also in the process of identifying specific projects by any implementing agency which can be funded or augmented with the said donated funds,” he said.
Jalad said as of this date, “the total funding requirement for this year’s project is in the amount of P10 billion for which the (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council) funds only has about 88 available.”
“Hence, the P36.91 million funds will certainly be utilized,” he said.
Required documents
Jalad said the OCD has provided financial assistance to victims of disaster even pending the completion of required documents in “exigent circumstances.”
Jalad was responding to COA’s observation that victims were required to present several documents to avail of the financial aid, which may have in turn hindered their application.
“The production alone of the above documents could be very burdensome for some victims, which could be one of the causes of low utilization of donated funds,” COA had said.
In any case, Jalad said the OCD administration has given instructions to OCD regional offices to assist the victims of natural disasters and “human-induced hazards” in the processing of required documents through “coordination with concerned NGAs, LGUs and barangays.”
Jalad noted the OCD led the development of the guidelines on the “receipt, utilization, and monitoring of the domestic and foreign donations for disaster risk reduction and management.”
“Once approved, the guidelines shall ensure the centralized safekeeping and decentralized utilization of domestic and foreign donations for disaster-affected areas received by various agencies,” Jalad said.
” The OCD adheres to the observation of the COA stated in its annual audit report. Rest assured that the OCD shall continuously improve its processes and procedures in compliance with existing laws, rules and regulations specifically in the proper management and utilization of funds,” he added.