Bordering on the criminal

It is unconscionable for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to accept millions if not billions of pesos worth of foreign and local donations intended for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda only to let perishable goods like rice and canned goods to rot.

Kudos to the Commission on Audit (COA) for calling a spade a spade in revealing that while  many Yolanda victims are going hungry, the DSWD has kept undelivered in its warehouses at least P141 million worth of foodstuff donated for those ravaged by the typhoon.

At the outset, the DSWD should have admitted lacking the capability to deliver the goods to their recipients because the private sector would have surely stepped in to provide the transportation and logistics.

In effect, the DSWD bit more than it could chew with the act of nonfeasance or dereliction of duty  by its officials bordering on the criminal.

The DSWD too has no business keeping in its bank account P382 million in cash donations. While the DSWD is given some leeway in spending the funds for the Yolanda victims, that does not include withholding the money altogether from their intended beneficiaries.

Why let the money sleep in DSWD’s bank account, so someone can cash in on the interests earned, or so the total amount can be diverted for a purpose other than to help Yolanda victims.

With two derogatory reports by COA on DSWD’s mismanagement of the donations, the Office of the Ombudsman should have more than enough to prosecute irresponsible DSWD officials. -end-