The Commission on Audit (COA) has noted that the government was slow in spending the $433.9-million grant to fight global poverty, but was quick to shell out the banned Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) fund by obligating unspent P600 million to pay for road projects.
In its 2014 annual audit report on the Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P), COA noted that after four years of implementation, the Aquino government was only able to utilize $200.253 million out of the P433.91-million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a US government corporation.
The huge funding was extended to the Philippines by the MCC to finance projects that could help fight global poverty.
“Although the Compact Program has been operational for almost four years already, only US$200.253 million out of the USD433.91 million grant representing 46 percent was utilized on Compact’s targeted activities, thereby casting doubt whether the intended objectives of the program could be achieved considering the proximity of its closure in 2016,” COA reported.
MANILA BULLETIN
