CoA flags ‘unused’ SRA budget

The Commission on Audit (CoA) on Monday revealed that more than P64 million worth of allocation intended to improve the productivity of sugarcane farmers was not put to use by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) almost 10 years after receiving the budget.

State auditors showed that a total of P64.383 million allotted for the implementation of the Block Farm (BF) Program under Republic Act 10659 or Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA) remained unutilized as of the year-end of 2023.

The sum was part of the 2016 and 2017 General Appropriations Act, which accounted for P46.071 million and P18.312 million, respectively.

The SIDA was enacted in 2015 to promote the sugarcane industry’s competitiveness and boost farmers’ incomes through improved productivity, and increased efficiency of sugar mills, among others.

The BF Program, one of the law’s initiatives, is the consolidation of small farms, including farms of agrarian reform beneficiaries, as one larger farm, with a minimum area of 30 hectares within a two-kilometer radius.

This is to take advantage of the economies of scale in the production of sugarcane, including the activities in the small farms are aligned and implemented to ensure the efficient use of farm machinery and equipment, deployment of workers, volume purchase of inputs, financing and other operational advantages, as well as recognition by sugar mills, government financial institutions, private investors, but the ownership of each small farm remains with the landowners.

The SRA is mandated to oversee the project’s implementation.

However, given the deficiencies observed, state auditors said the delayed procurement of the required types of equipment and machines was the primary factor that hindered the program’s fulfillment.

“Consequently, the intended beneficiaries were deprived of timely benefits of the program, such as the provision of farm implements, grant or start-up funding for the BFs to improve the living conditions of small sugar farmers, planters and farm workers,” the auditing body said.

The SRA vowed to expedite the implementation, including the procurement of machinery, equipment and farm inputs to ensure that the budget intended for beneficiaries will be distributed on time to prevent a substantial surplus of funds.

Last year, the SRA petitioned to restore the P2 billion mandated budget for SIDA after incurring a P1 billion cut over the agency’s reported failure to fully utilize the original allotted budget.

Meanwhile, apart from the lapses in the implementation of the BF program, the CoA also discovered that P34.362 million worth of farm machinery and implements that shall be given to the sugarcane farmer-beneficiaries under the same project were either underutilized or not utilized at all.

The audit team attributed this to the lack of training on the proper use and maintenance of the farm machinery, and the non-suitability of the procured items to the farm topography and landscape, or soil type, thus, hampering the attainment of the BF program’s objective to boost the production of sugarcane and sugar, as well as increase the incomes of its farmers.