GENDER issues for the Gender and Development (GAD) plan of the Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) in 2017 may not have been properly identified and that the P90 million budget allocation may have been spent for non-GAD activities, the Commission on Audit (COA)-Northern Mindanao said.
The COA annual audit report showed that the GAD plan of COWD discloses 10 gender issues with a total budget of P90,356,182.
However, the report said the causes that made these gender issues and concern were not stated in the plan; 'hence, it could not be established whether those issues raised are truly GAD matters.'
The COA noticed that 72 percent of the budget for alleged organization-focused gender issues is allotted for health and physical fitness and social gathering.
The COA observed that out of 10, only two issues or activities with a budget of P144,490 can be directly attributed to capacity building on GAD.
“As deduced from the corresponding GAD objectives, the remaining eight are not GAD issues/concerns,”the report said.
“It was gleaned that the gender issues were formulated without conducting gender audit and gender analysis or generating sex-dis-aggregated data in order to truly establish the gender gaps and challenges that need to be addressed,”the COA observed.
COWD general manager Bienvenido Batar said the district is spending five percent from the entire budget for GAD activities as mandated by law.
Batar clarified that the activities they have identified in their GAD plan is what they believed to be gender-related issues.
He said the COA did not say that the activities they implement were unnecessary or illegal expenditures.
“They are just saying nga amo silang gi-identify nga(we have identified them as) addressing gender and development issues pero dili diay(but are actually not),” Batar said.
Batar explained that there might have been difference in interpretation as to what is GAD issue or not.
He added that the management will sit down again and enhance the manage
“Ang documentation is needed as to why did it become a gender issue. We will address that kung kinahanglan naay lain (if we need to change the) activity to comply with GAD we will do so pero kung naay i-retain amo lang i-justify (but we will just justify, those that need to be retained),” Batar said.