AFTER three years of exceeding targets in the distribution of farm machinery from 2019 to 2021, the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) missed its 2022 target by a whopping 45 percent.
This was revealed in the 2022 audit report on PhilMech released last June 13, 2023.
Agency figures showed PhilMech posted a 108 percent accomplishment record in 2019, having bought and distributed 8,538 farm machinery bankrolled by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) against a target of 7,912.
In 2020, procurement and distribution totaled 8,233 against a 7,996 target for a 103 percent accomplishment score.
In 2021, PhilMech again exceeded the year’s target, 4,312 against 4,221, to chalk up 102 percent.
However, in 2022, the agency only bought 3,155 units out of the funded procurement for 5,704 target units, dropping its accomplishment rate to just 55 percent.
PhilMech is an independent national government agency mandated to promote mechanization technologies in agriculture and fishery to increase efficiency and productivity, reduce losses, and add value to the produce through research and development.
Over the last four years, the agency’s RCEF Mechanization Program incurred P17.565 billion in obligations while total disbursements hit P12.725 billion.
The biggest difference was incurred in 2022 with obligations totaling P4.334 billion while total disbursements stood only at P191.2 million or four percent.
The audit team traced the decline in the procurement as well as the disbursement rate to the backlog in postharvest equipment.
“While procurements for various production technologies were completed, procurements for postharvest technologies are still ongoing and are expected to be completed during the first quarter of CY 2023,” auditors said.
Likewise, the PhilMech Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) explained that bidding activities were delayed due to the late issuance of the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) for FY 2021, which was released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only in the second quarter of 2022.
