COA: Not all 2009 CCT beneficiaries were qualified

The Commission on Audit (COA) on Thursday revealed that not all beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program in 2009 were actually qualified to receive stipends.

“There are some beneficiaries whom we believe should have not been beneficiaries,” COA director for special audits Susan Garcia said during Thursday’s Senate finance committee hearing on the proposed 2012 budget of the COA.

Under the CCT program, the poorest of the poor families identified by the government would receive monthly stipends on condition that they would send their children to school while pregnant mothers would undergo regular checkups.

Garcia, however, said the guidelines for the selection of the poorest families were not followed during that time, which was under the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“They do not belong to the poorest of the poor,” she told the committee, referring to beneficiary families whose breadwinners were employed in good jobs.

The COA director, however, could not specifically identify how many families were unqualified under the program.

She said the COA only conducted random sampling so she could not give a definite number to the Senate committee.

COA chairman Gracia Pulido Tan, for her part, said the draft report about the matter is already with her.

“The eligibility requirements have not been observed. I think it will be another explosive report once it comes out,” she said.

Senator Franklin Drilon has asked Tan to submit a copy of the report to him after it has been completed.

In the proposed P1.8-trillion national budget for 2012, P39 billion will go to the CCT program – an 89 percent increase from the P23 billion allotted for the project this year. — RSJ/LBG, GMA News