COA to PDRRMO: Properly explain disaster manuals

THE Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) to properly account for P4.4 million worth of disaster preparedness handbooks.

According to a COA 2017 report, PDRRMO purchased about 17, 600 disaster manuals entitled “Pagpangandam sa Katalagman” for the at least 824 schools in Cebu province.

However, COA noted that PDRRMO failed to include, in their report, the names of the recipients and the signatures of school representatives identified as beneficiaries.

“Sound management and administration requires that every financial transaction involving distribution of items should be supported with a distribution list. Every item received has to be duly acknowledged by the recipient by affixing his signature,” the COA report said.

Presidential Decree 1445 Section 4, otherwise known as the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines, states that “Generally accepted principles and practices of accounting as well as of sound management and fiscal administration shall be observed, provided that they do not contravene existing laws and regulations.”

State auditors also questioned why PDRRMO’s distribution was only limited to elementary schools excluding high schools; and whether elementary students could understand the contents of the disaster handbooks.

PDRRMO Head Baltazar Tribunalo Jr. , for his part, explained that secondary schools were excluded from the distribution because high school students already have several programs on risk reduction and management during calamities compared to grade school students.

Tribunalo added that the handbook is also written in Cebuano and thus easy to understand.

“The handbook is hazard specific where the teachers and students can readily identify the hazards and the applicable protection measures to prepare before, during and after the occurrence of the calamity,” Tribunalo said.

To prevent a disallowance in audit, COA directed the PDRMMO management to submit a Distribution List with signatures of the heads of beneficiary schools.

Tribunalo vowed to comply with COA’s recommendation in coordination with the Provincial School Board (PSB).