State auditors flag Nueva Ecija over ‘unused’ funds

The Commission on Audit (CoA) called out the provincial government of Nueva Ecija over the P96.81-million unused and unreturned funds supposedly intended for implementing various programs and projects.

As of year-end of 2023, Nueva Ecija received trust funds from various national government agencies (NGAs), other offices, and organizations totaling P96,812,140.52 to carry out projects with respective timeframes.

However, the CoA said that the provincial government failed to timely achieve the desired output due to the inability of the officials concerned to fully utilize the government resources for the purpose.

Meantime, the Department of Health (DoH), which accounted for the biggest chunk of the fund transfer accounts at P34.7 million, supposedly for medical assistance of indigent patients, still has P7,590,337.67 funds that the provincial government has yet to utilize.

The funds amount has been dormant for six months now, according to CoA, as audit findings further revealed that trust funds amounting to P32,371,802.85 were dormant for three to 30 years.

It added that the backlog was in violation of Section 4.9 of CoA Circular 94-013, which mandates that the implementing agency return any unused balance upon the project’s completion to the source agency.

“The above lapses on the timely and full utilization of funds deprived the intended recipients of the benefits that could have been derived from the programs,” the auditing body said.

Apart from the prompt return of unused funds, the audit team also directed Nueva Ecija to strictly comply with the imposed time frame of the projects to ensure the efficient delivery of public services to the intended beneficiaries and to avoid the recurrence of similar lapses in the future.

To recall, the CoA furnished Nueva Ecija Governor Aurelio Umali a copy of the audit report on 11 April and on 22 May, Umali was slapped with a six-month preventive suspension by the Ombudsman in relation to the alleged illegal issuance of 205 permits for sand and gravel extraction in the province.