Return P140M, CoA tells LWUA

The Commission on Audit has ordered the Local Water Utilities Administration to return to the Bureau of the Treasury P140.662 million in unused subsidy funds initially intended for its water supply and sanitation development projects.

In its 2022 report, CoA discovered that LWUA had yet to return the sum for its 10 projects as of 31 December 2022 despite its recommendation to do so in the previous year's audit.

The auditing body flagged LWUA over the non-remittance of the subsidy to the national government, which contravened CoA Circular No. 94-013.

Section 4.9 of the general guidelines of the circular mandates that the implementing agency return any unused balance to the source agency upon the project's completion.

Based on the audit, the LWUA accumulated P140.662 million in unused subsidy funds from 2009 to 2017.

Citing the verification report, LWUA informed the auditors that of the P140.662 million, only P53.169 million will be returned to the BTr. At the same time, the unused balance of P87.493 million will be subjected to final validation with the water district recipients regarding the actual status of project implementation.

"On the remaining unused balance totaling P87.493 million, no status of implementation or report is available to determine if the funds are still needed for other related projects based on the existing LWUA policy and other rules and regulations," CoA said.

CoA reiterated its previous recommendation to LWUA to reimburse the P53.169 million to the BTr.

In addition, LWUA was ordered to hasten the validation of the remaining unused subsidy funds totaling P87.493 million and return the same to BTr, as warranted in Section 4.9 of CoA Circular No. 94-013.