THE Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the local government of Madridejos town in northern Cebu to submit a financial report pertaining to the fund transfer of equity portion from the 20 percent development fund for road concreting projects in the town co-funded by the German government.
In an annual audit report for 2017, COA said that P5,484,002.98 out of the P10,000,000 equity portion from the town’s 20 percent Development Fund for the road projects could not be properly accounted for and verified.
The road concreting project is under the Yolanda Reconstruction Program (YRP), a German-government project in partnership with the Philippine government and funded through a German government-owned development bank Kreditanstalt fur Weidraufbau (KfW).
The COA report said that Madridejos failed “to maintain adequate financial records and accounts of all receipts and disbursements contrary to the provisions and conditions set.”
The government auditors has recommended that Madridejos maintain a complete record to reflect the financial result of the said program.
Failure to do so would be a ground for the issuance of a Notice of Suspension.
“We recommend that management immediately prepare and submit the financial report and books of accounts for the implementation of the KfW-YRP projects for evaluation by this office, as well as the pertinent supporting documents on the fund transfers made,” COA said.
Madridejos Vice Mayor Salvador Dela Fuente, for his part, said the fund is their counterpart for the road project which had benefited at least four barangays; Kodia, Maalat, Mancilang, and Tarong.
These are among the barangays in the town that were badly hit by supertyphoon Yolanda (International name: Haiyan) in 2013.
“Ang amoa ana is counterpart sa KfW. Ang project nila is worth P50 million, ang counterpart namo is 20 percent, bali P10 million,” said Dela Fuente, who disclosed that their negotiation with the German-government for road rehabilitation grant was conducted in 2016.
According to Dela Fuente, KfW gave P40 million as a grant for the road rehabilitation project which started last year and had already been completed this year.
“Loan unta na ang among counterpart, pero wala paman mogawas ang among capacity to loan, so we used the 20 percent Development Fund instead,” Dela Fuente said.