The Commission on Audit has called the attention of the Department of the Interior and Local Government for the non-liquidation of P10 million for its information drive on federalism last year.
In an annual audit report, state auditors said the DILG released a P10-million budget allocation for a federalism information campaign to the Presidential Communications Operations Office via a memorandum of agreement between the two agencies in August 2018.
The PCOO was not able to submit a progress report and liquidate the P10 million under the arrangement.
“Verification of the subsidiary ledger showed that no monthly reports were submitted by the PCOO to show the progress of work or projects undertaken and to liquidate all related expenses incurred as required under the MoA,” the report read.
After the PCOO’s submission of the report, the DILG shall forward it to CoA.
“The bulk of the activities should have been completed as early as first quarter-end of 2019, considering that the effectivity of the MoA is May 31, 2019. Nevertheless, all the required liquidation and progress reports have yet to be submitted as of this writing,” the commission said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has batted for the adoption of a federal form of government to end the long-standing conflict in Mindanao, and to divide into 17 regions with each region being funded with the collection of taxes and fees.
Under the MoA, the DILG must oversee the information campaign activities of the One Nation, One Government: Transition to Federalism project.
The DILG as project overseer sent a demand letter to PCOO in January to ask about the project status, to no avail.
In March, the PCOO and DILG through its center for federalism and constitutional reform project management office agreed to amend the agreement over the PCOO’s lapses in its obligations to implement the project.
According to CoA, DILG, in April, sent another demand letter to refund any unexpended/unused amount to settle the fund transfer.
DILG, for its part, said the PCOO has already liquidated the money, while the CoA report was prepared by end of December 2018.