THE Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) Field Office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) distributed calamity food packs last year that included dubious canned goods and poor-quality rice “not fit for human consumption.”
This was revealed in the 2022 audit on the DSWD released last August 15, a copy of which was submitted to the office of Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian on July 26, 2023.
Under Annex A of DSWD Administrative order No. 02 s. 2021, family food packs were supposed to be distributed in a box containing six kilograms of iron-fortified rice, four 155-gram cans tuna flakes, four 150g cans corned beef, two 155g cans of sardines, five sachets of instant coffee, five sachets of instant choco mix, 250g of fortified margarine, and 10 sachets of multi-nutrient growth mix.
All canned food was likewise required to be marked “Halal.”
However, the audit team said a random check of the contents of the boxes distributed by DSWD-Field Office 9 to disaster victims showed the margarine, 10 sachets of multi-nutrient growth mix, and two sachets of instant choco malt were missing from the pack.
Likewise, recipient families had no way of knowing they are getting shortchanged since there were no markings outside the food box to indicate the contents.
Also absent were the required Halal markings on the four cans of tuna flakes.
“The six kilos of rice appeared to be of poor quality, with lots of broken grains, aged in appearance and dull in color,” auditors said.
In contrast, the audit team noted that the rice distributed by DSWD Central Office were of much better quality with whole grains, white and polished vacuum sealed in plastic bags.
“The audit team acknowledged the effort made by FO IX to return the rice to NFA (National Food Authority) on its delivery last January 24, 2022 due to discolored grain with quality not fit for human consumption,” it added.
Placing the non-Halal tuna cans side by side with similar products taken from DSWD CO boxes raised the suspicions of auditors that something is amiss.
“The two canned goods have the same brand name, and the color and design of the label are nearly alike but the details and information found on their labels differ, giving the impression that one was an imitation of the other,” they pointed out.
The audit team warned that disaster victims might complain of defective food packs and harm the image of the agency.
In its reply to the findings, the DSWD management instructed disaster officials in FO IX to address the problems by including a verifiable list of contents on the relief food boxes and ensuring that the canned goods are marked Halal, and of good quality prior to distribution to calamity victims.
