STATE auditors wanted the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to make its books transparent for the accounting of the P116.83-million worth of classroom project of former president and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga whose source came from overseas Filipino workers.

The Commission on Audit raised in its audit report on the Labor department that for the last four years, auditors have been urging the agency to submit full records regarding the DOLE-Classroom Galing Sa Mamamayang Pilipino Abroad (CGMA) Project.

Beginning 2003, the DOLE-CGMA program solicited support from Filipinos overseas as donors for the construction of 10,000 classrooms in “critical areas,” which the Department of Education (DepEd) identified.

A memorandum of agreement outlined that DOLE will manage the project. DepEd will identify areas where schools are needed. The Foreign Affairs department and DOLE will establish a quota system where number of classrooms will be solicited for donations from target donors.

The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. will arrange the hiring of contractors for the construction of the classrooms.

A review of the summary of cash donations and releases or disbursements of the Development Bank of the Philippines Trust Services showed donations worth P116.83 million from September 2003 to December 31, 2011. Releases and withdrawals amounted to P116.72 million.

At this point, COA already noted that the labor attaché who accepted the donations did not issue official receipts.

Moreover, the Commission noted that the DOLE was not submitting documents that could properly verify reports if the project was monitored.

“For the last four years, from 2004 to 2006 and 2009, we have reported on the DOLE the non-accounting of the donations received by the DOLE-CGMA Project,” the report read.

Auditors said that there is a need for “the immediate accounting” of the transactions in the DOLE’s books but the auditee-agency “did not take any action to implement the recommendation invoking that the donations are private in character.”

The legal arm of COA issued an opinion that it is not the memorandum of agreement that dictates the donations as private but the law.

“The nomenclature of the OFW donations as private funds under the second MOA does not detract from its nature as government funds,” the opinion read.

On November 26, 2010, the DOLE agreed to forward documents for audit.

But it was only on July 26, 2011 when the Labor department submitted photocopies of the deeds of donation, bank statements, list of donors and recipients and status of fund as of December 31, 2011 “without the official receipts, acknowledgment receipts, disbursement vouchers and supporting documents.”

“As of December 31, 2011, no financial transactions under the CGMA project were taken up in the books of DOLE,” COA noted.

Verification lapses
In March 2007, the CGMA Project was assigned under the monitoring of the National Reintegration Center for overseas Filipino workers (NRCO).

The audit team noted that there was “no actual monitoring of project implementation being conducted by the NRCO” and that the office was only informed of the project status.

“By the time the construction was completed, neither Certificate of Completion of the classroom units from [the Filipino-Chinese association] nor Certificate of Acceptance by the Principal was on file in the NRCO for the turned over school buildings,” the Commission said.

Turnover and submission of documents were not done as basis for recording the school buildings in the books of DepEd, COA reported.

By 2011 yearend, a reported 597 classrooms were built while six were still undergoing construction across the country.

Confirmation sent to the regional offices of COA bared that “only 48 elementary and high school [administrators] replied.”

COA said that only 102 classrooms were built wherein 96 of which were not recorded in the books due to absence of the certificate of completion. Seventy percent were turned over without certificate of acceptance.

“Thus, out of the reported 597 classroom built, the existence of the 495 unconfirmed classrooms were doubtful as the documents needed for their validation was not submitted,” COA revealed.

Auditors said that the absence of control mechanisms to validate the donations, the non-issuance of receipts, lapses in monitoring the construction of the schools, the non-submission of the certificates of completion or acceptance, “had raised doubts on the proper safeguarding of funds from loss [or] misappropriation.”

The DOLE already requested assistance from COA on how to book up the funds, the procedural guidelines and accounting entries.

The Labor department added that, due to the complexity of the project, DOLE sees to it that there is a need to review the memoranda for possible amendments.