THE National Housing Authority (NHA) has committed contracts worth P18.381 billion for military and police shelters as of December 31, 2020 but it only has a Congress-approved budget of P6.563 billion for such projects, resulting in over-commitment totaling P12.266 billion, government auditors said.
The NHA audit released last October 8 also found that housing contracts for informal settler families (ISFs) to be relocated as part of the Manila Bay cleanup also exceeded available budget by P839.65 million.
NHA executives did not deny the audit observation but said the full project cost is covered because of the Multi-Year Contract Authority (MYCA).
They said that based on the authority approved by the NHA Board of Directors, the NHA general manager “can realign projects under the Work Program provided that the funding requirement shall not exceed the budgetary provision for capital outlay under the COB (corporate operating budget).”
This means that the NHA “reallocated or realigned” money from deferred projects to fund the ones that were deemed “ready for implementation” even if they are still unprogrammed projects.
With the funding for deferred projects already gone, the NHA said it will replenish the money by including these in the corporate budget for the ensuing year.
The Commission on Audit (COA) disagreed with this interpretation on shuffling project funding, saying the new budget for each year should go to new projects.
“We reiterate that the COB for the succeeding year is intended for new projects, thus, funding the contract cost of project is not continuously given MYCA since the budgets for the subject projects are with negative cash balances,” it pointed out.
It also noted that under the 2021 NHA budget, there were no approved budget or new funding provided for unfinished housing projects for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The housing program for 41,405 uniformed police and military personnel was launched in 2011 under the Aquino administration’s 2011 – 2016 Philippine Development Plan (PDP).
Under the Duterte government, the program was renamed the 2017 – 2022 Public Investment Program (PIP).
In 2016, NHA had 25 ongoing projects related to AFP/PNP housing with a price tag of P240,000 per unit measuring 22-square meters — house and lot package.
