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Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap  has suspended the distribution of funds to foundations and people's organizations nationwide pending the results of an investigation on the allegedly dubious foundations that received over P400 million in funding from the Department of Agriculture.

 

Yap said on Wednesday he has ordered the agriculture department’s undersecretary for operations to look into the Commission on Audit report and at the same time asked the regional field units and foundations concerned to come out with reports and proof the money given them were not misspent.

 

Yap said that apart from reports, foundations which have received funds from the agriculture department can come up with pictures of the projects.

 

Yap however conceded there is a need for stricter tracking of projects, and an even stricter tracking of screening of the foundations vying to be beneficiaries of DA funding. Currently, foundations are only required to show documents of articles of incorporation, audited financial reports, and proof of track record, as well as names and addresses of members of the boards of the beneficiary foundations.

 

Yap said that those allegedly dubious foundations in the Commission on Audit (COA) report may have just failed to comply with accounting procedures---such as reporting the wrong addresses. While defending that the release of funding to these foundations is not illegal, Yap said it is nevertheless worth looking into if only to stave of questions since the funds were released before the May 2007 polls.

 

Secretary Cerge Remonde, Presidential Management Staff director general, meanwhile said President arroyo has ordered an investigation into the alleged fund scam at the DA regarding the transfer of over P400 million supposedly to dubious foundations. 

 

Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo directed him, as head of the Pro-Performa team handling government projects, to look into the status of the projects supposedly funded by the funds. Remonde said that Arroyo told him she is concerned by all reports of corruption.

 

 

The House of Representatives is currently probing the funds and its disbursement to alleged questionable foundations before approving DA’s proposed 2009 budget.

 

Akbayan Rep. Ana Theresia "Risa" Hontiveros-Baraquel on Tuesday said that the DA has yet to submit documents and present people that would explain the irregularities in the disbursement of funds of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program where questionable foundations are involved.

 

COA reported that a Antipolo Philantrophy Foundation (APFI) is the biggest recipient of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget, receiving a whopping P146.6M in 2007 and P30M in February 2008. 

 

COA however was not able find APFI’s office in the Antipolo City address it listed in documents submitted to the DA and instead found a school in its place.

 

“The DA-RFU (Regional Field Unit) IV did not monitor the fund transfers to APFI, resulting in the accumulation of unliquidated cash advances in the amount of P146M. Despite non-liquidation of previous fund transfers, the DA-RFU IV released the amount of P30M (to APFI) in February 2008,” COA said.

 

Aside from APFI, private groups that received funds from DA Secretary Arthur Yap’s office were the National Organization for Agricultural Enhancement and Productivity, Inc., P44M; Commoners Foundation, Inc., P9.1M; Las Marias Foundation, Inc., P34M; Coprahan and Gulayan Foundation, Inc., P31M; Gabay Masa Development Foundation, P5M; Samahan ng Manininda ng Prutas at Gulay sa Gabi, Inc., P20M; and Aaron Foundation, Inc.

 

The COA said that these foundations together with APFI were of questionable legitimacy.

 

Aside from APFI, there are 18 more foundations that receive funds from the DA budget. Baraquel said that it is the DA’s obligation to present all documents of these foundations in the budget deliberation, along with the people behind them.

 

Baraquel said that the DA promised to submit the documents as early as they can, hopefully by next week.

 

Yap has earlier said that the agriculture department has reports on the utilization of funds as he dismissed allegations of questionable transactions by his department.

 

“We have liquidation reports regarding those which are being submitted to COA now. That is their opinion and we are submitting our answers to COA now,” said Yap in text message to ABS-CBN News

 

Yap appealed to those hurling accusations of another so-called scam to await their submission of documents before drawing conclusions.

 

“Let us give the DA and the foundations time to answer the COA findings before we go into branding this as a ‘scam,’ it is not fair to the parties involved,” said Yap.

 

Based on a report by COA, as of 2007, billions of agriculture funds end up in irregularities. This, claimed Arroyo critics, includes the alleged new rice scam under the GMA program.

 

The 2007 irregularities were said to be a repeat of the anomalies that the COA revealed in 2004. More specifically, in the P728M fertilizer funds released to congressman-allies of President Arroyo as well as to more than 50 administration mayors and governors.

 

Some of the foundations involved in the alleged 2007 fund diversion were purportedly to be the same ones used by politicians to skim tens of millions of pesos from the fertilizer funds. With reports from RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News and The Philippine Star

 

as of 09/24/2008 3:17 PM

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