THE Commission on Audit has asked the Ormoc City government to explain the whereabouts of donations in kind that appear to have vanished after city officials posted having received them on the city’s Facebook page.
Among the donations that went missing were:
– 200 sacks of rice (25 kilograms per sack) and 150 boxes of 1L bottled water from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on January 12, 2022;
– 12 tablets (brand not disclosed) from the National Housing Authority (NHA), January 2022;
– 46 wheelchairs from PITMASTER Foundation (Providing Indigent Timely Medical Assistance Service and Targeted Emergency Relief), March 2022;
– three sets of weighing scales from Ajinomoto, August 2022;
-1,000 white T-shirts from Panda City Merchandise Inc. owner James Sy, February 2022; and
– trash bins from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources — Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) Region 8, March 2022.
Government auditors noted that based on posts on Ormoc City’s official FB page, there were proper deliveries by the donors and acknowledgment by city officials but the donations simply disappeared shortly after.
“Query with the Accounting Office revealed that it was not aware of the in-kind donations received by the City as posted on Facebook, thus, no accounting entries were made for its recognition and neither distribution sheets on file with their office,” the audit team said.
The City General Services Office said the 200 sacks of rice and bottled water intended for victims of Typhoon Odette were not turned over to it but to the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
“However, the CDRRMO clarified that the relief goods were merely placed there but immediately transported to Southern Leyte, since that place was determined to be more gravely devastated by the typhoon,” auditors said.
The City Government of Ormoc declared in the FB post that the donation “was NGCP’s way to further provide assistance to the City Government of Ormoc in the relief operations.”
