‘CCT funds reached beneficiaries’

We would like to raise some clarifications on the report “COA: P5-B CCT funds lost in Philpost” by Gil C. Cabacungan (News, 9/3/14).

For the record, the conditional cash transfer (CCT) funds from the Landbank of the Philippines reached target beneficiaries nationwide through the Philpost pay-out services, and personnel from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) can attest to this.

Of the total P10.921-billion funds transferred from the Landbank for the 2013 pay-outs, P9.399 billion were paid out to about 3.97 million beneficiaries nationwide, while the balance, which resulted from the nonappearance of beneficiaries, was returned and deposited to Landbank under the DSWD account.

For transparency purposes, of the P4.936 billion referred to in the report as “accumulated amount of unliquidated cash advances” in 2013, P4.698 billion was liquidated in January 2014, while P56.7 million was returned through bank deposit in the same month of the same year. We are currently preparing the liquidation for the remaining balance of about P200 million, contrary to the amount previously published.

This breakdown was not reflected in the report but we were able to immediately take this up in the January 2014 Trial Balance, under Journal Entry Voucher No. 140152 (which was acknowledged by the Commission on Audit) to comply with the mandatory liquidation.

The liquidation process requires an ample amount of time, taking into consideration the preparation and submission of Philpost’s consolidated reports to the DSWD for issuance of certificates of liquidation, which are requirements of the COA.

While we accept that we have delays in the liquidation, we would like to note that our corporation continues to attend to the liquidation and reconciliation requirements set by Landbank and the DSWD and the COA.

We are also willing to face the Senate in response to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s call for inquiry.

—MA. JOSEFINA M. DELA CRUZ,

postmaster general and CEO,

Philippine Postal Corp.