THE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has missed completion deadlines on 17 fish hatcheries, including eight that were wrongly reported as “completed,” the Commission on Audit revealed.
Onsite inspection by the audit team of 20 hatcheries totaling P150 million earlier listed by BFAR as completed projects showed eight still had ongoing work on various components.
These are located in Perez, Quezon (P40 million); Baybay, Leyte (P20 million); Maasin, Southern Leyte (P20 million); Guiuan, Eastern Samar (P20 million); Calbayog City, Samar (P20 million); Lapinig, Northern Samar (P20 million); Aklan (P30 million); and Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte (P40 million).
“Twenty projects were reported as completed in the report, however eight of them have components that are still not accomplished as of year-end. The reasons for the delays …were not disclosed/communicated by the management,” the Commission on Audit said.
The audit team said the 20 hatcheries were part of 57 such projects funded by various Republic Acts passed by Congress, of which 13 were listed as “construction in progress” (CIP), 11 have ongoing feasibility studies, six are under processing of tenurial (occupancy) instruments; three were due to warding by the local government, three were still under site identification, and two have just completed feasibility studies.
Out of the 13 CIP, the COA said nine had delivery deadlines in 2022 that have already overshot their completion dates.
