THE Commission on Audit (COA) has said that only 10 of 82 cooperatives that received financial assistance from the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) were qualified as beneficiaries under the Mindanao Peace and Normalization through Cooperative Development (MPAN-CODE) Project.
This means that out of the P74.8 million cash released by the agency, only P9 million went to eligible cooperatives.
The CDA heralded the project as “a key socio-economic component of the government’s peace initiative in Mindanao” intended to speed up the normalization process in areas of conflict by helping develop sustainable and self-reliant cooperatives among the decommissioned combatants of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF).
Review of the selection guidelines showed only 10 cooperative-beneficiaries met the project criteria. Each received P650,000 for the construction of mini-rice mills and another P250,000 as support for post-harvest facilities or a total of P9 million.
While the other 72 “did not meet the required criteria,” they still received a total of P65.8 million from the CDA, government auditors noted.
Based on CDA Order No. 2019-008 or the Revised Policy Guidelines in the Selection of Beneficiaries, a cooperative must be duly registered or accredited with the CDA Extension Office concerned, is active or operating, validated as qualified beneficiary of the MPAN Project, located in areas of conflict in Mindanao, is not a recipient of or in default in liquidating public funds from another government agency, certified by the CDA area personnel as having identified membership and leadership structure to avail of the financial assistance.
Verification by the audit team showed 25 cooperatives were registered or accredited but not located in conflict areas. Still, the group received P22.5 million.
The list also showed 21 cooperatives that were unregistered since 2017, four of which were not inside conflict areas. These received cash assistance totaling P18.9 million.
Auditors also found 23 that were newly created of which nine were outside of conflict areas. They still received P21.5 million.
The remaining 13 cooperatives were listed as “no data available” yet still given P11.9 million.
“It was observed that the list of beneficiaries was not consistently tallied/corroborated against the master data. The record showed that out of the 82 cooperatives chosen, only 25 were included in the list of registered cooperatives in the ARMM Region,” the COA said.
The commission reiterated that the project objective was to provide livelihood assistance and rice mills to pre-identified cooperatives, but the selection rules were not observed.
