The commission on audit finds millions of pesos in Yolanda recovery funds have been misspent by the Tacloban City government due to delays, contract irregularities, and rule violations. MANILA, Philippines – If thousands of survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in Tacloban City have yet to feel the benefits of millions of pesos in rehabilitation funds, it is because irregularities marked a variety of projects, state auditors found. The irregularities involved a total of P907.56 million meant for infrastructure, aquaculture, and emergency shelter assistance projects, the Commission on Audit (COA) said in its 2015 audit report on the city government. The report was released on Wednesday, July 27. The funds were given to the city government by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. A total of 31 infrastructure projects, covering the construction or repair of barangay halls and mini-gymnasiums, have not been completed as of February 3, 2016. The contractors for the projects worth P100.23 million, under the Recovery Assistance for Yolanda (RAY), have yet to face penalties under the Government Procurement Reform Act, the report said. Meanwhile, 19 additional projects worth P46.53 million were suspended after the contracts were awarded, due to a variety of reasons, ranging from revisions of the plans to the project being within "no-build zones." Auditors also found out that missed deadlines and poor planning plagued the P32.55 million Mariculture Park Rehabilitation Program, which aimed to supply fishermen with fish cages and bangus (milk fish) fingerlings. Out of 150 planned fish cages, each worth P160,000, only 95 were delivered to eligible recipients. This was because, auditors found out, the beneficiaries needed to cough up P216,000 per cage to feed one cropping of bangus. In addition, a supplier failed to deliver even a single fingerling to the beneficiaries on time under a contract worth P8.5 million. Tacloban misspent nearly P1B in Yolanda funds – COA
REALITY BITES: Yolanda Funds? ------------------- After a lot of people blamed Mar Roxas for the problems in Tacloban, the real culprit has been named...Tacloban City government itself. COA found it used up nearly P1 billion Yoland Funds on questionable transactions. Now that Roxas has been vindicated , it's time Romualdez and his gang be prosecuted. Read more: 1. http://www.philstar.com/…/14…/coa-smells-yolanda-fund-misuse 2. http://www.manilatimes.net/probe-misuse-of-p17-b-yolanda…/…/
Hard to gather up any anger about the misuse of disaster relief funds anymore. It's like beggars, if people stopped giving them money, there would be d*mn few. As for foreign aid in disaster relief? The USA for one would be better off flying over the disaster area and dropping $100 bills like leaflets, some of it will get to the proper recipients at least, unlike the money that passes through government's hands.
After super typhoon damaged many areas and claimed thousands of lives in the Philippines, billions of aid poured in not just from other places in the country but also from foreign countries. There was an abundance of money, clothing, and food for the victims yet while the local officials had to deal with looting and lack of proper coordination in the distribution of these donations, there were also many items that were later discovered rotting in warehouses! Photos of Rotting ‘Yolanda’ Donations in DSWD Warehouse Angers Netizens
In many cases the laws that are supposed to help people create a nightmare of red tape that make the people trying to help completely ineffective. Before the dswd can give someone aid they have to verify and document the person is needy. They need id, baragauy certification that the person actually is a resident...the list goes on and on. There are certainly nefarious people that try to scam everything they can which leads to a system that just doesn't function. When government services are involved. Common sense is just not allowed. Sometimes you just have to give your head a shake.
Perjury and even possible syndicated estafa charges may be filed by lawmakers against a contractor of housing projects for victims of typhoon “Yolanda” in Eastern Samar, after an inspection last week showed the steel bars fell short of the government’s specification. Negros Occidental 3rd Dist. Rep. Albee Benitez, chair of the House of Representatives’ housing and urban development committee, said contractor Juanito Tayag of J.C. Tayag Builders, Inc., “definitely committed perjury” when he denied in a Sept. 18 hearing that substandard materials were used in its resettlement sites. Benitez said an inspection conducted after the hearing showed the reinforcing steel bars used by JC Tayag fell short of the National Housing Authority’s 16-millimeter specification. The rebars were found to measure 6.53 to 11.84 millimeters. Read more: Raps eyed vs ‘Yolanda’ housing contractor over substandard materials
I have a friend in Leyte who only contacted me a few days ago since I tried contacting her after the last Earthquake there. Apparently the last quake destroyed her new house that was built for her and her Husband and Son after losing everything in Yolanda (I think it was?) and her taking possession not long before the quake hit. Not trying to scam me, as she did not ask for a single peso, only relayed to me that she is waiting for her house to be repaired after much of it was ruined in the quake. So I assume the workmanship was far from satisfactory...
It probably just does not happen there in layte or samar brian,im pretty sure it happens here with certain government projects also.
