IT would be a mistake to dismiss allegations that administration candidate Manuel Roxas II mismanaged the Department of Interior and Local Government to the tune of P7 billion in unliquidated cash disbursements simply because the accusation comes from the opposition.
That is certainly what the Roxas camp is hoping people will do when it brushes aside these accusations from the opposition United Nationalist Alliance with a blanket denial and motherhood statements about transparency.
But the administration cannot escape the fact that the UNA revelations about fiscal mismanagement come, not from some shadowy opposition research group, but from an official Commission on Audit report.
Specifically, the CoA said the DILG had P7 billion in unliquidated fund transfers, including cash advances for local and foreign travel and typhoon rehabilitation funds incurred while Roxas still headed the department.
The funds were also supposed to have gone to programs to provide potable water, relief to typhoon victims, and public transport assistance. The money, too, was disbursed to local government units under the administration’s Bottom-Up Budgeting program that has been criticized as a tool for political patronage during an election year.
“The receivables accounts accumulated to a huge amount of P7.040 billion because management failed to monitor the liquidations of the fund transfers and submission of the corresponding financial reports” as required, the audit agency said.
But a spokesman for Roxas waved away these findings, saying that the responsibility for liquidation now lies with the local government units that are implementing numerous projects.
“All these funds are fully accounted for and the entire process is completely transparent,” the spokesman added, without citing any CoA conclusion to support the claim.
We believe, however, that the administration and the Roxas campaign need to be less cavalier about the people’s money. They cannot expect the people to blindly accept what they say, simply because they pay lip service to the straight path and transparency in government.
The National Association of Lawyers for Justice and Peace said as much when it declared that it was wrong for Roxas to pass the responsibility to local government units, since it was his office that disbursed the funds.
“Mr. Roxas must show the records of how much was given to each LGU, who received the money and how, when, where and for what purpose. Related documents such as project studies and accomplishment reports must also be presented,” the group’s founding chairman, Jesus Santos, said.
Roxas also needs to explain the CoA finding that the DILG under his watch failed to monitor the projects to which funding went, the NALJP said.
“Considering the amount and the implications, mere words by Roxas or anyone else in the LP will never be enough assurance that there is nothing wrong with the handling of the P7 billion.”
These concerns, we hasten to add, are doubly worrisome in an election year, where it is easy to believe that public funds are being diverted to put the administration candidate in office.
To dispel such suspicions, the Roxas campaign must prove in a detailed manner that this isn’t so, and not just wave the pesky question aside.