City Hall told to enforce P17M worth of projects

By: Gerome Dalipe

STATE auditors have directed the Iloilo City Government to proceed with the implementation of the National Government-initiated projects meant to reduce poverty in the grassroots in 2018.

In its 2018 annual audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) asked the City Government to address the deficiencies in the procurement component of at least three Bottom-up Budgeting (BuB) projects amounting to P17.64-million.

This, after the City Government, failed to fully implement these poverty-alleviation programs of the National Government as of Dec. 31, 2018.

The City said the non-completion of the program was due to the “variation of the sustainability plan, which means the fund balance was not implemented due to the “lack of material time.”

Thus, it defeated the purpose to immediately fast track development, as well as depriving the timely service delivery towards poverty reduction to the intended beneficiaries, the auditors said.

“Bottom-up budgeting” is a program under the Aquino administration that allows local groups, led by civil society organizations, to consult with communities and choose from a list of projects to implement.

The programs aim at ensuring implementation of priority poverty reduction projects as identified in the city or municipal level through participatory planning and budgeting process.

The program also seeks to increase citizens’ access to local service delivery through a demand-driven budget planning process and to strengthen government accountability in local public service provision.

The three BuB projects amounting to P17.64 million remained uncompleted at year-end, thus it is contrary to law.

BuB is “an approach to the preparation of agency budget proposals, taking into consideration the development needs of cities/municipalities as identified in their respective local poverty reduction action plans that shall be formulated with the strong participation of basic sector organizations and other civil society organizations.”

In 2016 and 2017, the City Government received about P31.37 million for BuB programs sourced from the 2015 and 2016 General Appropriations Act.

These programs include the construction of a two-story standard evacuation center with amenities worth P7.5 million; the Integrated Community Food Production Program, P370,000; Yaman Pinoy of the Department of Trade and Industry, P700,000; and the construction of second-level evacuation facility, (P12.8-million).

The City Hall informed the auditors the evacuation facility may be completed by Dec. 3, 2019.

“The delays in the implementation of the BuB program or projects are indicative of inadequate planning and showed that BUB projects were not properly monitored and given priority,” the auditors said.

In the report, the auditors directed the City Hall to monitor the implementation of the construction of the 2nd level evacuation facility to ensure its timely completion.

The City Hall is also urged the conduct of proper planning, supervision and constant monitoring in the implementation of BuB programs to ensure the project is timely completion and execution.