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Monday, February 23, 2004
Probers rule to bar new Perdido Lex
By KAREN M. FLORES
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Cebu Provincial Board’s (PB) joint committee on accreditation and investigation, in an initial meeting last week, found the need to impose stricter policies and requirements on NGOs seeking Capitol’s recognition.
PB Member Victor Maambong, chairman of the accreditation committee, said that although they do not wish for the inquiry to be a “witch hunt,” they are “looking forward” in order to protect the Provincial Government from losing any more funds.
The two committees were convened following the failure of authorities to locate officials of the Perdido Lex Foundation Inc., which received some P5 million from the Capitol last year.
Maambong said that among the new policies and requirements they will recommend during today’s session of non-government organizations (NGOs) applying for accreditation are “verifiable IDs” and personal appearance by majority of its officers before the entire PB.
He said among those they will consider as “verifiable IDs” are the ones issued by the Social Security System and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Money trail
The joint committee will also suggest that the board give preference to NGOs that are “duly sponsored” by the PB member representing the district where they hold office.
During the initial meeting members of both committees held after the session last week, Maambong said they looked at some documents on the 284 NGOs accredited since 1992 and formed these “generalizations”:
* There are those that applied to be accredited but have not asked for any financial aid;
* Some of the few NGOs that received money from the Capitol did not bother to submit an accounting; and
* There are those who received money but have not posed any problem to the Provincial Government.
The committee report will be submitted to the board for adoption today.
Because of these findings, members agreed to propose a resolution this afternoon to ask the provincial accountant to submit to the board a list of NGOs to whom Capitol funds were released since 1998.
From there, the joint committee will take a closer look at the performance of groups as partners of government in improving the delivery of basic services, Maambong said.
If there are NGOs found remiss in their duties, members during the meeting were more inclined to “point out” the groups’ deficiencies to the executive department, he said.
The governor, as head of the department, would then be tasked with imposing sanctions provided in the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between Capitol and the NGO before any disbursement is made.
Every transaction between the Provincial Government and an NGO or any government or non-government group is governed by a MOA.
The PB decided to review the performance of Capitol-accredited NGOs and the accreditation process itself after Perdido Lex officials apparently disappeared with some P5 million in public funds last year.
The National Bureau of Investigation has summoned some Capitol officials to give their statements on the matter, although it is the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas that is conducting the investigation.
(February 23, 2004 issue)
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