COA calls out OWWA on free flights for OFWs

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for allowing 3,707 overseas Filipino workers to avail themselves of free flights under its COVID-19 emergency repatriation program more than once, indicating that the OFWs used the program for other purposes.

In its 2022 annual audit report on OWWA, the COA said the audit team’s review of the list of OFWs repatriated due to the COVID-19 pandemic from April 2020 to May 2022 revealed that 3,707 individuals “availed of emergency repatriation more than once, ranging from two to five times over the 26-month period under review.”

The COA noted that 88 percent or 3,250 of these OFWs were sea-based.

“It appeared that the repatriation program was utilized by these OFWs for their regular trips back home after their contracts expired and not from distress as can be gleaned by the number of times these OFWs availed of the program,” the COA said in its report.

Identified as responsible for the repatriation of the 3,707 OFWs was OWWA’s Regional Welfare Office (RWO) 10 (Northern Mindanao).

The program in charge from RWO 10, however, explained to the audit team that the OFWs allowed to use the emergency repatriation program were merely based on what was maintained and communicated to them by the COA Central Office.

“Hence, they (RWO 10) could not explain how these OFWs were assessed to qualify as overseas Filipino in distress,” the COA said.

The COA said the RWO 10 pointed out that regional offices only receive the OFWs to facilitate their accommodation, meals and land transportation to their respective destinations, but the review of the OFWs’ eligibility for the emergency repatriation program lies with OWWA’s Repatriation and Assistance Division.

“The management of OWWA is commended for its efforts in ensuring that distressed OFWs during the pandemic are accorded proper assistance. However, the improper evaluation of OFWs availing of the program may have detrimental outcome on the effectiveness of the program as it exhausted funds that could have been used to accommodate eligible OFWs in distress,” the COA said.

“Thus, OWWA expended funds for the airfare, accommodation, meals and land transportation that should have been borne by these OFWs during their regular trips back home, contrary to Section 2 of Presidential Decree No. 1445 (Government Auditing Code), thereby depleting scarce government resources,” it added.

The COA said the RWO 10 already agreed to its recommendation to make representations to the Central Office regarding the observation of the audit team in order to ensure that the agency’s emergency repatriation funds “are expended only for those eligible overseas Filipinos in distress.”