Serial blunders & low on dough

The National Food Authority or NFA may have enough money to cover pre-funded expenses, but an insider claims they don’t have enough cash to cover salaries and operating expenses. They are, figuratively speaking, low on “dough.”

The NFA has money, something like a billion pesos on paper, but that can only be used for prefunded projects in support of the NFA mandate such as annual palay purchases, price stabilization mechanisms and construction of buildings and facilities such as dryers and storage silos. Diverting these funds for payment of salaries would constitute malversation.

Because the NFA is a government-owned and controlled corporation, they are required by law to “earn” or generate cash amounting to about P300 million a month to pay for their salaries nationwide, as well as utilities, maintenance and other operating expenses. They don’t have any appropriations from the national government except for infrastructure investments.

It may be recalled that some legislators and lobbyists successfully reduced the scope and powers of the NFA as well as reduced its personnel compliment using the Rice Tariffication Law.

What has recently complicated the matter is that the NFA has been prevented from selling “disposable stock” because of padlocked warehouses while 141 officers and employees have been suspended and are under investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman for selling “disposable stock.” While the NFA runs low on dough, another developing concern is that the NFA, allegedly, has not been able to buy much of the palay now available due to high palay prices. The question is, which comes first, NFA shutting down or a rice crisis when the buffer stock is depleted?

Whoever is left with the bag of responsibilities will be experiencing the chilling effects that the ombudsman has cast upon the NFA in the same manner that a presidential rebuke of an SRA official in the past caused DA officials to be fearfully cautious of their decisions. As a result, there will surely be great hesitation on anybody’s part to act or transact in income generation for fear or reprisal or blow back from unseen forces, not to mention the anger of employees if salaries are delayed or unpaid.

Chances are the NFA council or the Secretary of Agriculture will resort to some sort of emergency funding or bridge financing if needed. But even that will be short-term because salaries and bills need to be paid monthly, palay needs to be purchased now in order for the NFA to have goods or a commodity to trade or sell in order to generate income and regulate rice inflation.

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I have been keeping mental notes on the challenges faced by new administrations in government agencies and it is very discouraging to see how the “watchdogs” can’t seem to get ahead or realize they are being used.

The DOJ, the Office of the Ombudsman, Sandiganbayan, NBI and PNP can’t seem to get their act together to go after corrupt groups and influential people in government who have prevailed to perpetuate their greed and corruption, using the very offices intended to fight the corrupt.

There are so many instances under several presidents and administrations when attempts were made to introduce change in the structure, operations and processes of agencies and departments such as DOTr, PhilHealth, NFA, LTO, sports agencies, PNP, etc.

But instead of the “suspects” being pinned down and removed from government, it is the suspects who manage to turn the tables against agency heads and officials by using or misleading the investigators and watchdogs to “attack” the good guys instead.

Every time the PhilHealth tries to clean up the agency, every attempt ends up with the Senate and Congress investigating the agency instead. In order to buy peace, some people have decided to just focus on their job and not rock the boat by ignoring the corrupt.

When former director general Jeremiah Belgica of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) pushed hard on agencies and local governments notorious for delays and corruption, he and five others found themselves suspended and dismissed from the service via the ombudsman.

Years later, they are still fighting to clear their names and reputation and spending what I know would be millions of pesos in lawyers’ fees. Ironically, there is no law requiring the ombudsman to respond to motions and petitions with the same haste that the OMB issues preventive suspension orders.

When MIAA general manager Cesar Chiong attempted to reorganize and clean up the NAIA/MIAA, he was anonymously charged before the ombudsman, removed from office and forced to go to the Court of Appeals, spend a small fortune and subsequently “won” the case.

In the case involving the 141 NFA rank and file that were placed under preventive suspension, media reports have already started to punch holes in the case after discovering that one of the respondents has long been dead and buried, two were already retired from service before the alleged case happened, while a few others were on study leave from the NFA and never part of the case.

Is it coincidence that the case against MIAA GM Chiong and the NFA 141 both came up after they discovered suspicious or questionable transactions from the previous administration and were “studying” records prior to any investigation?

Here’s the kicker, just before GM Chiong was charged anonymously there were rumors that Chiong’s team at NAIA were looking into unusual transactions from the previous administration. Just before the NFA 141 were charged, they were already investigating a group involved in many irregularities. DA/NFA investigators suspect that the ombudsman was misled by the real crooks who knew they were already being targeted for removal by DA Secretary Kiko Laurel!