Gov’t rice scam bared
Auditors uncover fake signatures of farmers
By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:35:00 09/15/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Fake signatures on the list of beneficiaries were among the irregularities in last year’s P218.7-million expenditure of the Department of Agriculture for hybrid rice, certified seeds, farm inputs and fertilizers for farmers in four regions, according to the Commission on Audit.
The purchases were part of the GMA (Ginintuang Masaganang Ani) program intended for the “poorest, often neglected” sectors of the population—farmers and fisherfolk—to increase their harvest and boost competition in the global market.
“[T]he good intention of the GMA rice program to reduce poverty incidence and attain national food security is tainted with weaknesses and irregularities in its implementation, reducing the effectiveness of the program,” said a report released recently by the COA.
The GMA program also figured in another scam in which former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante allegedly diverted P728 million in fertilizer funds to finance President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s campaign during the 2004 presidential election.
At least 52 signatures of farmers on the list of recipients of rice seeds and fertilizer were faked, while 139 of 593 recipients interviewed from Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas received little of the farm subsidies or none at all, according to the COA 2007 report on the Department of Agriculture.
In Central Luzon (Region 3) alone, the list of 650 farmers who were supposed to receive hybrid rice and certified seeds included 84 people who were not identified as beneficiaries.
Of the 240 farmer-beneficiaries interviewed by the COA, 8 percent disclosed that they did not receive the seeds and that their signatures on the list were not theirs.
Political intervention
Eighty-six of the farmer-beneficiaries informed the COA that they did not receive the fertilizers distributed by municipal agricultural officers.
Municipal agricultural officers attributed the discrepancy in the listing to “political intervention.”
In the report, the COA said the DA-Regional Field Unit in Central Luzon purchased a total of 235,780.65 bags of hybrid rice and certified seeds worth P73.28 million to be distributed to various provinces in the region.
It also spent P103.73 million on farm inputs and fertilizers as government subsidy for the farmer-beneficiaries.
The COA also found that part of the fertilizer was wasted due to its late distribution to farmers. In Barangay Laoang in Tarlac City, an audit team found 37 packs of Bio-N fertilizer worth P2,220 lying around in a waiting shed.
Farmer-beneficiaries in Southern Tagalog (Region 4) encountered the same anomalies. Some of them denied the signatures on the list and others claimed that the farm subsidies distributed to them were lacking.
The region spent P18.72 million for the GMA Rice Program for the wet season last year, according to the report.
Sampling
Interviews of beneficiaries were conducted on a sampling basis and were performed in Laguna, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro and Busuanga Island in Palawan, according to the COA.
Of the 94 recipients in Occidental Mindoro and Laguna, eight said they did not receive the correct quantity of seeds while 12 got more as required.
Thirty-two of the farmers claimed that the signatures on the master list were not theirs, while 28 revealed the discrepancy of the actual size of the farms with the agriculture technicians’ records.
“Audit likewise disclosed that technicians do not always follow the one-bag-one-hectare scheme in distributing seeds,” the report said.
Favored farmers get more
“Interviews also revealed that technicians increase the seeds they gave to farmers they favor and compensate the difference by lessening the seeds of other beneficiaries,” the report said.
But validation conducted in the DA-Regional Field Unit in Central Visayas “could not be completely relied upon” since the signatures of at least three farmers differed from what appeared on the list and two did not receive the subsidized seeds, the COA said.
The agency encountered other irregularities: 14 out of 46 recipients did not receive the right amount of seeds and other farm inputs while a total of nine whose names did not appear in the list acknowledged the receipt of the subsidized seeds.
While the audit team found no discrepancy between the amount of hybrid and certified rice seeds distributed and the quantity received by farmers in Eastern Visayas, the COA noted that not all rice seeds received per master list reached the intended beneficiaries.
Unaccounted for
The DA-Regional Field Unit in Eastern Visayas purchased 39,791 bags of hybrid and certified rice seeds worth P22.96 million intended for 20,201 farmer-beneficiaries.
But of the 1,345 kilos of rice seeds allotted to 11 beneficiaries per list, only 721 kilos or 54 percent actually reached the concerned farmers. There were 624 kilos or 46 percent of the rice seeds unaccounted for, it added.
“We recommend and management agreed to design a systematic procedure to improve the manner of distribution of farm inputs and implements to the intended farmers and monitor the distribution to maximize use of government resources and increase performance level,” the COA said.
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