The Commission on Audit, or CoA, uncovered an anomaly in the National Food Authority, or NFA, regarding deficient facilities following recent allegations of corruption in the sale of government rice.
Despite an average P7 billion subsidy for the National Food Authority or NFA yearly, various defects in the agency’s warehouses exposed palay or rice sacks to great risk of being spoiled.
In a report covering 2022, the Commission on Audit flagged the NFA for failing to strictly observe policies and procedures on warehouse custody, piling system, storage structure, specifications, and good warehouse-keeping in its warehouses in Regions I, II, III, VI, VIII and XIII.
State auditors said the backslide ran counter to NFA Standard Operating Procedure GM-WH07, which prescribes warehousing policies and procedures and covers basic and accountability procedures, warehouse layout, warehouse maintenance, and standards and safety practices, among other things.
Birds’ paradise
CoA ocular inspections revealed that some doors and vents of warehouses did not have mesh wire or secondary screen doors, enabling birds to enter freely, causing spillage, infestation and contamination of palay stocks.
The roofs of several warehouses leaked and had holes, while fire extinguishers were expired, if not lacking, in some warehouses.
Moreover, closed-circuit television cameras were not installed in some warehouses and other structures, such as watch towers and bridges, preventing the monitoring of activities inside the warehouses.
“Non-adherence to NFA’s good warehouse-keeping could result in environmental and health hazards and losses due to damage/deterioration in quality and value as well as theft/pilferage of palay/rice stocks,” CoA said.
The auditing body said NFA branch managers should conduct regular inspections to determine whether warehouse personnel strictly adhered to NFA standard operating procedures or SOP GM-WH07 to ward off losses of government resources.
NFA-Samar and Surigao del Sur attributed their deficiencies to a lack of manpower to monitor and supervise the warehouses but vowed to adhere to the CoA’s recommendations.
NFA branch offices in Abra, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan, Iloilo and Leyte also committed to implementing strict compliance with NFA SOP GM-WH07.
According to CoA, those concerned informed the facility management section of the damaged structures and facilities observed during the regular inspection.
NFA officials in Eastern Pangasinan, Cagayan, and Nueva Vizcaya also pledged to verify and report the status of their CCTVs and immediately repair defective units.
