Quezon City passes COA development fund review; Davao City flagged
MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City government, under Mayor Joy Belmonte, has passed the Commission on Audit (COA)’s review of the utilization of its P1.588-billion development fund for last year, while the Davao City government has been flagged for inappropriately charging from its 2022 DF P6.454 million worth of expenses not related to development projects.
Based on the COA’s 2022 Compliance Audit Report (CAR) on QC’s utilization of its DF, the city government was able to comply with Section 287 of Republic Act 7160, also known as the Local Government Code of 1991, mandating local government units (LGUs) to appropriate in their respective annual budget at least 20 percent of their annual Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) for implementation of development projects.
The audit body noted that of the QC government’s P7.938-billion total IRA for 2022, exactly 20 percent or P1.588 billion was appropriated for 72 development projects, programs and activities (PPAs).
The COA said this was on top of the QC government’s P1.781-billion continuing DF appropriation from the previous year for 21 PPAs; thus, the QC government had a total of P3.369-billion DF at its disposal for implementation of the total of 93 development PPAs.
The state auditor added that as of the end of last year, the QC government had been able to utilize P835.359 million of its DF appropriation, completing the implementation of 68 development PPAs, while 25 more PPAs are ongoing.
The COA also noted that the QC government was able to comply with the joint guidelines of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), on the expenditures that shall not be charged against the DF.
“Based on the audit work performed, we found that the utilization of the 20-percent DF of the Quezon City government complies with the provisions of Item 3.2.5 of the DBM-DOF-DILG JMC (Joint Memorandum Circular) No. 1 dated Nov. 4, 2020,” the COA’s report stated.
Under the DBM-DOF-DILG JMC No. 1, personal services expenditures such as salaries, wages, overtime pay and other personnel benefits; administrative expenses such as supplies,
