OF a P2.8 million fund intended for a comprehensive program for street children, the only project it was used for was the profiling of street dwellers.
Cebu City Councilor Margarita Osmeña asked what happened to the funds intended for the city’s street children.
The funds came from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and given to the Cebu City government last year for programs for the city’s street children.
She said that last Tuesday, DSWD called a meeting with the city government because the national agency was checking the programs that used the funds.
“The DSWD wanted to find out where it was because there is a second tranche. Before you give the second tranche, you have to find out what happened to the first,” she said.
Osmeña met with officials of the city’s Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) and asked for a breakdown of what was spent.
She said she was told by the DSWD officials that the fund was underutilized by the previous administration, which only spent P800,000 of the total amount to conduct the profiling of some 600 street dwellers.
The fund was fully downloaded to the city government in January this year and the program of the DSWS started November last year.
Osmeña said city could have spent it for the programs intended to take care of street dwellers.
“Sayang ba, because we have many programs we would like to implement. We have so many project proposals we would like to implement. Normally our main first problem is funding. Where will you get the funding. This problem is baliktad (it’s the other way around). The funding is there. Why are we not using it?” she said.
Asked if she knows of specific programs that the past administration undertook using the funds, Osmeña said there was employment of some people but no reports of what they did.
“Employment of the so and so. The hiring of so and so. But you don’t know what they did. But they said they have a profile already,” she said.
Osmeña said they will utilize it this year on programs she planned for the street children along with the additional P1.4 million that DSWD-7 will grant this year.
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