Bantay Mandaue’s second batch of call takers and dispatch operators receive their certification as qualified command center operators from Cloyd B. Dedicatoria (center), SugboTek’s managing director and Guardian creator. | Contributed Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) told the Mandaue City government to fill in mandatory positions in its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (LDRRMO) after its 2019 audit shows that two out of four of the required positions in the local disaster office remain vacant.
According to a 2014 joint memorandum of the National DRRM Council, Department of Local and Interior Government (DILG), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the mandatory positions in the LDRRMO include one LDRRM Officer, and three DRRM staff responsible for administration and training, research and planning, and operations and warning.
The state auditors noted that based on the city’s 2019 personnel record for the Bantay Mandaue DRRMO, the positions of LDRRMO IV, with a compensation schedule of Salary Grade 22, and the LDRRMO III, with a salary grade level of SG-18, were not filled up.
The unfilled positions, according to COA, means failure to secure a continuity of service and programs in the said office which could be advantageous in strengthening the country’s National DRRM System towards sustainable economic development, “by mainstreaming the same in all national and local development processes.”
“Mainstreaming of DRRM in all these processes principally requires the institutionalization and organization of its structures, in all levels of government nationwide, where local DRRM plans and policies will be developed, and where implementation of actions and measures pertaining to all aspects of DRRM will be initiated,” the audit report said.
The 2019 audit report also showed that the BDRRMO was headed by its Officer-In-Charge, Krister Corregidor Cosedo, who holds the position of Computer Programmer III, with a compensation schedule of SG-18.
Meanwhile, COA also flagged down the city’s underutilization of its LDRRM fund in 2019 and the preceding years.
According to COA, only 14 percent or P17 million of the 2019 LDRRMF of P122.7 million and 18 percent or P83 million of its prior year’s unexpended funds were utilized in 2019.
COA said the underutilization of the funds defeated the purpose and reduced the city’s capabilities in disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response.
Table I. The subsidiary ledgers of the unexpended LDRRMF which was recorded in the Trust Fund. (COA)
“It can be seen from the above information that funds were barely utilized for reducing disaster risk and disaster preparedness and response capabilities of the City to achieve desirable results,” the COA report said. / dcb