OPPOSITION senator Leila M. de Lima has filed a resolution calling for an investigation on the Department of Transportation’s (DoTr) deficiencies in the disbursement of coronavirus aid funds and delays in its project implementation.
Ms. De Lima, chair of the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, filed the resolution Tuesday to seek an explanation from Transport officials as well as thresh out weaknesses in the system.
“Concerned offices and officials must therefore be enjoined to explain their failure to perform their mandates,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
The senator, citing the 2020 Commission on Audit report, said “the underutilization of DoTr’s aid funds not only hindered its optimum use towards much needed programs, it also immobilized already scarce funds” that could have been given to the health and education sectors.
The audit report also noted a delay in 15 foreign-assisted projects with an aggregate cost of P1.3 trillion.
State auditors also said that the Transport department failed to deliver license plates despite acquiring P2.2 billion from registrants.
“It is also imperative that DoTr’s policies are looked into to ascertain whether existing bureaucracies in its system hamper the performance of duties,” said Ms. De Lima. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan
