ONCE hailed by the Arroyo administration as an answer to the country’s fuel problems, the Jatropha Biodiesel Project is on its way to being erased for good.
According to the 2022 audit report of the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC)-Alternative Fuels Corp., various equipment and assets originally acquired at P10.6 million will be given away as scraps to shut the books on the project after it stopped 12 years ago.
State auditors said the equipment located in different state universities and facilities of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) now have a book value of only P529,631.81 due to depreciation.
An inventory by the audit team found that among the remaining project assets were accommodations, drying facilities and jatropha processing equipment located in Fort Magsaysay, University of the Philippines-Los Baños, Nueva Vizcaya State University, and Pampanga College of Agriculture.
“The PNOC president approved in January 2023 the recommendation to dispose the above-mentioned properties through transfer to the government agencies where the projects were originally installed and where the machineries and equipment could still be useful for research purposes,” auditors said in their report.
The Jatropha facility in Fort Magsaysay will be ceded to the Philippine Army through a deed of donation, according to the PNOC-AFC management.
The COA said the PNOC-AFC violated provisions of Presidential Decree No. 1445 or the General Auditing Code of the Philippines for neglecting the prompt disposal of the project assets once the project was shut down in 2011.
“The non-disposal of the remaining Jatropha Biodiesel Project properties after almost 12 years from the closure of the project is contrary to the provisions of Section 79 of PD 1445 and resulted in the further deterioration of the properties,” the commission said.
The PNOC-AFC management assured the COA that the disposal of all unserviceable properties of the Jatropha Biodiesel Project would be completed by the last quarter of 2023.
