AGRI WATCH

DA to probe anomalous rice program for farmers unearthed in COA audit

The Department of Agriculture is investigating last year’s distribution by Municipal Agricultural Officers of government-subsidized seeds and fertilizer to farmer-beneficiaries in certain provinces where the Commission on Audit claimed to have found certain irregularities.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Thursday such a probe is necessary given the “serious charges” hurled by the COA against these MAOs who are not under the supervision and control of the DA as a result of the devolution of certain powers to local government units under the Local Government Code.

“An investigation is needed so the DA can pinpoint and file charges against the MAOs or other people responsible for such irregularities in a few provinces and at the same time clear the overwhelming majority of MAOs and other LGUs officials who have been doing a great job of helping the DA implement its farm productivity programs at the local level,” said Yap in a press conference.

The secretary welcomed the COA report even as he bewailed that the positive points raised by the COA were not given prominence, including the marked increase in per-hectare yields as a result of the subsidies given by the Arroyo government through the DA and the substantial assistance by DA technicians to farmer-beneficiaries under this program.

Yap said the DA does not purchase the inputs but only gives the subsidies or program funds to the accredited suppliers after a verification process based on the master lists of farmer-beneficiaries that had been submitted by the MAOs to the Department.

Under the availment system for such input subsidies, DA finance undersecretary Belinda Gonzales said that after the LGUs have prepared both the master lists of farmer-beneficiaries and farm input suppliers, the suppliers then deliver the inputs to designated drop-off points.

She said the farmers then acquire the inputs after complying with the requirements and signing the master lists, indicating the inputs received, in the presence of LGU representatives. Only after the LGUs have certified the signed master lists indicating the actual inputs received, will the DA regional offices pay the subsidies to the accredited suppliers, she added.

Yap said the COA report should be placed in the proper perspective because all the irregularities cited by the Commission involved operations of the MAOs and not of the DA. “We hope this COA report can be taken in the proper perspective,” he said. “We have to remember that when it comes to the implementation of programs, the MAOs and the agricultural technicians are the ones who implement them.”

He showed during the press conference a sample of the official document covering the subsidies indicating that aside from the farmer-beneficiaries, the other signatories on the master lists are only the MAOs, agricultural technicians and the provincial agricultural officials.

“Nonetheless, this investigation will also look into the possible complicity of certain DA people in the regional or provincial offices in the hope of coming up with a better implementation and monitoring system,” Yap said.

The investigation will likewise pry into the COA-reported claim by some of the MAOs that the supposed discrepancies were a result of changes in the recipients due to “political intervention,” which the COA did not elaborate on, he added. Yap pointed out that the DA recently forged an agreement with governors on the detail of MAOs to the Department’s regional units precisely to enable the DA to closely monitor from hereon the distribution by MAOs of DA-released fertilizer and seed subsidies to farmer-beneficiaries.

Under the DA’s Memorandum of Agreement with the League of Provinces of the Philippines, the local governments would assign some or all of their agriculture officers to the DA for the duration of the government’s two-year, five-harvest program to raise the country’s rice self sufficiency level to at least 98%.

The DA aims to attain this self-sufficiency level by raising yields to 18.55 million metric tons next year and 19.77 million MT in 2010.

As a result of the sustained, higher farm spending by President Arroyo, Philippine agriculture grew by a high of 4.7% in the first semester of 2008, as against 3.74% in the same period last year, largely on the back of the strong performance of palay, corn and the rest of the crops subsector.