No bad record for DPWH 6 as COA uncovers over P80B in over-all DPWH messy deals
Good news to the public being served by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Regional Office 6 here in Western Visayas. And bad news to those elsewhere in the country.
The Commission on Audit (COA) in its disclosure of the DPWH yearly financial dealings revealed over P80 billion in questioned and questionable transactions. In fact, the operations of the department from the Office of the Secretary to various regional offices reel from billions of irregularities and illegalities.
If it is any consolation to the people of Western Visayas, the DPWH here appeared to be the "exception to the rule." This, after government auditors found nothing significant to question including day to day operations of the region up to millions in DPWH projects.
With 22 findings, the COA team tasked to consolidate the Annual Audit Report (AAR) of the DPWH discovered numerous messy and shady deals. Yet again, not in DPWH 6 where not a single mention was made on the submitted records and documents validated by government auditors.
Too good to be true? As far as the COA report went, the 2006 operations in the region was above-board and within government-prescribed regulations.
Such as the COA summed up its latest AAR for the department with the following adverse findings -
Over P34.8 billion in Accounts Payable were found to be overstated after these were considered by COA to be "undocumented payables."
Over P21 billion in Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) account were in shambles. There was also the matter of over P4.5 billion in unrecorded direct payments made to contractors. And over P4.4 billion in overstated Cash Accounts while over P1.8 billion were also found out to be "dormant accounts."
The Commission likewise verified over P2.1 billion in unrecorded balances in the DPWH which according to COA "resulted to doubts on the validity/reliability and existence of balance under the stated Accounts Payable."
The yearly audit check further uncovered millions more in questioned transactions such as the over P144 million in cash advances and fund transfers. These were made to local government units and national government agencies that the department failed to monitor.
And as if the P4.5 billion unrecorded direct payments to contractors was not enough, COA further discovered over P20.1 million in advances to the same group.
Other COA findings include the discovery of over P214.4 million fund allocations that were used and utilized not in accordance with the intended purpose. This, alongside over P120.9 million in disbursements not supported with complete and proper documentation.
More questions too on the "pakyaw" projects of the department that bore over P80.2 million in procedural lapses.