As of April 20, 2021, the city of Caloocan, one of the most populous cities in Metro Manila, had already distributed P1,222,984 in cash to 342,725 families, accounting for 92 percent of the 369,652 names nominated by DSWD for the NCR+ Ayuda program.
The remaining 26,927 household recipients on the list have yet to claim their cash, even though they have been sent text messages and their barangays have been informed that they are qualified to receive the ayuda.
Caloocan enlisted the aid of pioneering money remittance agency USSC, which had also helped the city distribute cash aid to Caloocan students last year.
Using state-of-the-art technology, USSC deployed cash caravans to barangays and employed Caloocan City students to help manage the pay-outs. USSC’s technology sends a text message with a date, time and venue to individuals in the SAP database.
The recipients show the text message at the venue and are allowed in based on the time specified on the text message. This allows the orderly distribution of cash without crowding and without wasting the time of the household recipient.
Once inside the venue, the recipient shows a valid ID with the text message they received. The paymaster looks up the record on a tablet, takes a photo of the recipient and the ID presented, and asks the recipient to sign electronically on the tablet. The whole process takes an average of 3 minutes per transaction, and all data is electronically stored to ensure an audit trail.
USSC implemented a KYC (Know Your Customer) process following guidelines set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to ensure the identity of the individual. The KYC process also takes out duplicate records in the system so any risk of double-dipping is prevented.
All processes were also developed to comply with the requirements of the Commission on Audit and to make it easy for auditors to monitor individual transactions.
By implementing process standards, providing local employment to Caloocan City residents and deploying state-of-the-art technology, USSC was able to ensure that Caloocan City would ensure a safe, quick, efficient and reliable cash distribution program for its citizens.