Youth body flagged over P2.7 million disbursement

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has directed the National Youth Commission (NYC) to explain its “irregular disbursements” last year amounting P2.71 million, which included funds intended for trainings of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) members but was instead diverted to counter-insurgency activities.

In its 2021 annual audit report, the COA noted that the NYC’s Sangguniang Kabataan Mandatory and Continuing Training Fund (SKMCTF) amounting P651,999.72 was instead used for the payment of salaries of three employees and 27 contract of service workers performing tasks related to the government’s End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) program.

“Further scrutiny showed that these workers are performing tasks related to ELCAC, the nationwide approach of the government to defeat the local communist terrorist group and obtain sustainable and inclusive peace,” the COA report stated.

Under Republic Act 10742 or the General Appropriations Act of 2021, the SKMCTF shall be exclusively used for the conduct of capacity-building activities for the Sangguniang Kabataan officials and members of the Local Youth Development Councils (LYDC) and “in no case shall said amount be used for any other purpose.”

“As there were no funds issued for implementing ELCAC activities, it would appear that the agency is defrauding the government by using funds for a different purpose other than that which was intended,” the COA said.

In the same audit report, the COA also called out the NYC for using P2.06 million of its Marawi Fund for payments to 40 youth volunteers hired as “health care personnel/social work personnel” supposedly to provide “mental health and psycho-social services” to the victims of the 2017 Marawi Siege.

The COA pointed out that providing mental health and psycho-social services is “not congruent with the roles of NYC” as a sub-committee member of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM).

It noted that under Administration Order 3, which created the TFBM on June 28, 2017, the NYC will be under the sub-committee on peace and order headed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, with the primary task of ensuring the restoration and maintenance of peace and order and the continuity of public services in Marawi City.

Aside from not being part of NYC’s mandated tasks, the provision of mental and psycho-social services is best performed by the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, COA said.

It directed the NYC to submit an explanation justifying the use of its SKMCTF for ELCAC purposes.
The NYC was also directed to “show the necessity of hiring health care and social workers for the provision of mental health and psycho-social services in Marawi City and the connection of these services to the functions and responsibilities of NYC under the sub-committee on security, peace and order of the TFBM.”