DA orders audit of farm-to-market road projects
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is launching a “sweeping” audit of farm-to-market road projects covering the years 2021 to 2025 to check and resolve possible irregularities in their implementation.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. ordered a review of these projects in response to congressional investigations involving government-funded flood control projects. President Marcos has also formed the Independent Commission for Infrastructure to probe irregularities surrounding infrastructure projects.
The DA aims to complete the audit by the end of this year.
“If there are any issues in these agricultural road projects, I will have to report that to President Marcos,” Tiu Laurel said in a statement on Thursday. “We must make sure they are done properly, that taxpayers’ money were spent to provide farmers with market access and not squandered for farm-to-pocket projects,” he added.
The government aims to construct 131,000 kilometers of farm-to-market roads designed to link agricultural areas with markets.
Backlog
Approximately 70,000 km of these projects had been completed as of July. However, the government has around 61,000 km in backlog or pending validation.
The DA validates and identifies the areas where these projects are needed, while the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is tasked with commissioning, bidding out and constructing these roads.
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said the DA should expand the scope of the planned audit to determine the impact of major agricultural projects on the farm sector.
“The audit should not only include farm-to-market roads but all big-ticket items like machines, hybrid seeds, fertilizers, biofertilizers, etc. not only to check the existence and quality of projects but also their impact,” FFF national manager Raul Montemayor said in a Viber message.
“We in the private sector have been proposing to help monitor these projects but we are not getting the support we need,” he said.
