Ombudsman probe to cover NFA deals as far back as 2019

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INVESTIGATIONS into the alleged anomalous sale by the National Food Authority (NFA) of rice buffer stocks to favored traders will be expanded to cover similar transactions by the agency in the last four years under the Duterte administration.

Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa, spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, said a panel of investigators from the Office of the Ombudsman is working alongside an internal audit team that is reviewing why the NFA bypassed bidding processes in disposing of grains reserves.

“This inquiry will not be confined to the transaction that started in November last year and consummated in January. Our investigators will pore over records going as far back as 2019,” he said in Filipino.

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De Mesa said the instruction of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. was to ensure that there would be no recurrence of the problem by putting up all necessary safeguards and to unmask as many of the individuals involved as possible.

Should the review reveal there were traders and buyers who were in cahoots with erring NFA officials, they will be held to account, he said.

In a 27-page directive dated March 1, Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered 139 NFA personnel placed under a six-month preventive suspension to enable the investigation panel to access documents and possible witnesses.

Aside from NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco and assistant administrator John Robert Hermano, also suspended were 12 regional managers, 26 branch managers, and 99 warehouse supervisors.

Tiu Laurel has taken over as interim NFA chief while the post of regional managers and branch managers would be assumed by their respective next in rank.

Laurel has called for an emergency meeting of the NFA Council to ascertain that the agency will remain fully functional despite the suspension of most of its top executives.

De Mesa pointed out that keeping the NFA fully operational during the transition is imperative, given the start of the harvest of this year’s crop of rice from local farmers.

“We have enough manpower in the NFA. What we want to make sure of is that our warehouses will remain ready to take on palay that we will buy this harvest season. We have funding under the 2024 General Appropriations Act to buy dry and undried palay,” he said.

What needs replacing are the sold buffer stocks that must be maintained at 15 to 30 days computed consumption equivalent to 350,000 metric tons which are held on standby for emergencies including rice shortages and calamities.

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