DND assures funds being used properly

May 31, 2019

Amid a Commission on Audit (COA) report about unliquidated funds, the Department of National Defense (DND) assures the funds under its management were properly utilized.

“We would like to assure the public that the funds under the management of the DND are issued to the appropriate beneficiaries and instrumentalities,” said Arsenio Andolong, DND spokesman, Friday.

“We would also like to reiterate that we have adequately answered every observation raised by the COA in their 2018 Annual Audit Report during our exit conference. Unfortunately, the media organizations, which released the stories on the COA report, did not include the DND management response to the COA observations in their published articles,” he added.

Andolong said “the 2018 Commission on Audit (COA) report cited that the Department of National Defense has an unliquidated balance of P19.812 million out of the P161.726 million worth of inter-agency funds for various projects.”

“As of December 2018, P141.914 million has already been liquidated. P4.435 million of the remaining P19.812 was allocated for the financial assistance program for the personnel of the DND and its bureaus affected by Typhoon Yolanda, and the magnitude 7.2 earthquake in 2013,” he said.

“Of the total funds intended for the project, P2.890 million has already been granted to the beneficiaries pre-identified by the Office of the President. The total unliquidated balance amounts to P1,545,000.00. In order to fully liquidate the funds, COA requires waivers from the beneficiaries who are no longer keen on availing the financial assistance,” he added.

Andolong explained that the DND “has encountered difficulty in administering the financial grants due to incomplete personal data of the beneficiaries.”

“The Human Resource Office of the Department has coordinated with the COA regarding the development of mechanisms for beneficiaries who no longer wish to avail of the financial assistance and/or a few whose whereabouts have not been updated and can no longer be ascertained,” he said.

“In such cases, the funds will be appropriately returned to the Office of the President. Nevertheless, the Department is continuously exerting diligent efforts to locate them,” he stated.

“P12.9 million of the P19.812 million comes from the DENR for the establishment of a bamboo plantation at Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation Area. A new MOA was signed in April of this year between the DND and DENR to continue the project. The rest of the amount due for liquidation comes from the various other projects in the DND, which are still ongoing,” he added. Robina Asido/DMS