COA flags EMB-6 for unused equipment, accountabilities

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

The Commission on Audit (COA) called out the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) in Western Visayas for unused equipment and unsettled accountabilities.

COA discussed these findings in the 2022 Annual Audit Report on the EMB national and regional offices. The report was made public via the audit agency’s website on July 13.

Among the “red flags” found by COA are unutilized solid waste management (SWM) equipment, unliquidated fund transfers, and unsettled disallowances.

Based on the report, EMB-WV procured 40 SWM equipment sets worth ₱39.92 million, which included Biodegradable Waste Shredder, Biodegradable Composter, and Solar-Powered 4G Camera Kits.

Almost half of these (18) were rendered as not operational in the audit, including 12 sets, 4 biodegradable composters which were either not operational or for repair, and 2 Camera Kits yet to be installed.

A COA Audit Team found that the cause of the unutilized or non-operational equipment was the inability of the EMB-WV to strictly enforce the terms of its memoranda of agreement (MOA) with respective local government units (LGUs), specifically on the establishment of permanent sheds or construction of materials recovery facilities (MRF).

Apart from EMB-Western Visayas, several sets of unused equipment were also found in Ilocos Region (34 sets worth an estimated ₱42.21 million) and Cagayan Valley (42 sets worth an estimated ₱42.22 million), which were acquired between 2021 and 2022.

To address the concerns, EMB central office agreed to the following:

-to instruct EMB-WV to require the concerned LGUs to fast-track the provision and upgrading of electrical connections of the MRFs that will operate and utilize the SWM equipment;

-immediately repair the bio-composter and install the camera kits;

-construct the MRF to house the SWM equipment; and

-to strictly monitor, validate, and evaluate LGU compliance with their MOA in the implementation of SWM projects within the 1st quarter of 2023.

OUTSTANDING ACCOUNTS

The COA also found that an estimated ₱41.19 million in fund transfers from EMB to LGUs and other national government agencies (NGAs) remained liquidated at the end of 2022.

These include ₱603,000 transferred to LGUs that remained unaccounted “due to inadequate monitoring controls in the liquidation of the accounts,” and ₱40.587 million to other NGAs because of the inability to revise the Work and Financial Plan after various changes in technical and detailed designs.

These fund transfers were in support of various SWM programs, including the establishment of MRFs, Environmental SWM systems for homeowners associations, the Ecosaver Program, safe closure and rehabilitation of open and control dumpsites, implementation of the National Environmental Program (NEP), and other SWM programs.

The unliquidated fund transfers from the EMB-WV were part of a total of ₱273 million, which also included fund transfers from its central office and other regional offices in the country.

The central office’s management agreed to the commission’s recommendation to instruct the accountants of the central and regional offices to adopt a monitoring scheme or tool for the strict enforcement of liquidation of fund transfers within prescribed periods, and to require LGUs and NGAs to submit liquidation documents for the fund transfers and refund any unused or unutilized funds for completed projects.

The Western Visayas regional office was also specifically told to submit a request for an extension of project implementation and revision of their Work and Financial Plan.

The EMB-WV was also found to have an outstanding unsettled balance of ₱994,299.96 from notices issued by the COA, which included ₱18,000 from a notice of disallowance (ND), ₱32,000 from notices of settlement of suspension, disallowance and charge (NSSDCs), and ₱505,447.22 unsettled from NDs which have already been final and executory.

Under COA Circular No. 2009-006, NDs are issued for transactions which are considered to be either irregular, unnecessary, excessive, or extravagant under prior COA issuances, while the NSSDC is issued whenever a suspension, disallowance, or charge is settled.

This, along with unsettled balances of the EMB central office and regional offices in the National Capital Region and Eastern Visayas, were attributed to “lax enforcement” by the central office of full settlement or compliance of audit suspensions and disallowances within the prescribed period.

For the Western Visayas regional office, specifically, COA noted that there was an “absence of information on the persons jointly and severally liable for the disallowances”, which led to an “inefficient recovery of disallowed payments.”

The EMB’s management agreed with the recommendations to direct the regional directors to ensure strict enforcement of the compliance and settlement of suspensions and disallowances within the reglementary period, and for the EMB-WV specifically to locate copies of previous years’ NDs and require those identified as certifying and approving officers of the vouchers and payrolls to settle the disallowances of those already retired or deceased.

The EMB, as a whole, received an adverse opinion from the COA in its 2022 Annual Audit Report because of various unadjusted accounting errors and omissions, various accounting deficiencies, unreconciled balances between property and accounting records for inventories, among others.

When a government institution is given an adverse opinion by state auditors, it means that its financial statements do not fairly represent its financial standing based on accounting standards.