The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has said it has fully disbursed the P779,486,400.15 in local and foreign cash donations that it received in December 2013 and that these are fully accounted, Manila Times reported.
The clarification came after an audit report of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) relief operations said the DSWD is yet to spend the P782mn cash donations that it got from local and foreign donors.
The department did not say why its figure differed from that mentioned in the audit report.
“At the time the audit was conducted, we were still doing relief operations and were still using the department’s existing funds and ready supplies, so much of the cash donations would really not have been really touched yet,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said, adding that the cash donations were really intended for implementation of rehabilitation projects based on proposals of affected local government units (LGUs).
“The audit report only covered until December 2013, just a month after Yolanda. So understandably, the utilisation (of the donations] will still be low,” according to Soliman. The DSWD explained that donations were used based on the approved Work and Financial Plan (WFP).
According to the WFP, the amount was used for the core shelter and emergency shelter assistance programs where families with totally damaged houses received P30,000 each and those with partly damaged houses got P10,000 each.
