Coop members may face corruption charges
OVER UNLIQUIDATED P3 MILLION
MEMBERS of the Asenso Cooperative, composed of Dagupan City Hall employees, could be facing corruption charges over the use of funds for a feeding program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
Mayor Belen Fernandez said the members of the cooperative, which was contracted as supplier of the feeding program by the Lim administration, said for their involvement in the feeding program, could be cited for conflict of interest punishable under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Fernandez has discovered that of the initial P3 million tranche for the program, only half was spent for feeding severely and moderately malnourished children in the city’s day care centers.
This alleged misuse of the fund points to the failure of the city government to adequately feed children beneficiaries that they are entitled to under the program.
The amount was supposed to provide day care children one hot meal a day for 120 days on regular days.
NO LIQUIDATION
Worse, officials of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) headed by Leila Natividad, that was tasked to implement the program, has not submitted its liquidation report for the disbursements.
Fernandez said that no succeeding release by DSWD will be made unless the Local Government Unit (LGU) submits a report on the utilization of the released fund.
City hall observers indicated to The PUNCH that Natividad should resign over her failure to properly implement the national program that eventually risked the continuance of the project.
However, the mayor has written an appeal to DSWD to resume its support for the city’s feeding program notwithstanding the CSWD’s omission with an assurance that, henceforth, the City Nutrition Office, no longer the CSWD will oversee the project.
Aside from Dagupan, other LGUs that have yet to liquidate funds include Binmaley, Lingayen, San Fabian, Binalonan and San Carlos City.
Fernandez also found out that the Lim administration violated the guidelines set by DSWD requiring parents of child beneficiaries to prepare the food for the day care center children with the help of day care workers.
Instead, the CSWDO contracted the work of preparation, cooking and serving of meals to the city hall-based Asenso Cooperative.
Fernandez has already stopped the cooperative from any involvement in the feeding program and had ordered Natividad two weeks ago to submit her liquidation report in order to continue the feeding project in the city.
To date, Natividad has failed to comply and has not defined a self-imposed deadline for her submission.
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