Don’t give funds to fake NGOs

Last January 29, 2014, CODE-NGO sent a position paper to the office of Senator Teofisto “TG” Guingona III for the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing held last January 30, 2014, which focused on the registration, accreditation, and monitoring of NGOs that receive public funds, and other policy issues related to the pork barrel scam.

The paper outlined CODE-NGO’s “Recommendations for Improved Guidelines to Ensure Integrity and Promote Effective Use of Government funding to CSOs/NGOs”, which had been deliberated and approved by its Board of Trustees.

CODE-NGO strongly recommended that government transition as soon as possible to alternative systems of CSO-managed CSO certification, such as the certification issued by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC). Third party managed certification bodies provide a validation process that is independent of both the implementing agency and NGO receiving funds. The pork barrel scam has shown that corruption can occur when nefarious individuals from both agencies and fake NGOs collude to pilfer the people’s money.

CODE-NGO also recommended for government agencies to conduct due diligence on NGO receiving public funds. This includes validating the records of these NGOs with the agencies that issue them — such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Cooperative Development Authority – and actual visits to the NGO’s offices, staff, and officers. Some fake NGOs used by Janet Lim-Napoles in her scam had fake officers whose signatures were only forged and who were not aware that they were incorporators or officers.

CODE-NGO opposed proposals to centralize the vetting of CSOs in any government agency, since the broad diversity of NGOs means no agency exclusively has the expertise to validate them. The huge number of NGOs also poses a significant bureaucratic issue that would only impede the operations of NGOs.

These views were agreed with by Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chair Guingona and Senator Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, who also shared that while policy makers need to ensure strict monitoring of fake organizations, there must be a balance with facilitating partnerships with legitimate and hard working NGOs.

Other resource persons present during the hearing were Securities and Exchange Chair Teresita Herbosa, Commission on Audit Chair Maria Grace Pulido-Tan, Government Procurement and Policy Board Executive Director Dennis Santiago, Governance Commission for GOCCs Chair Cesar Villanueva, and PCNC Chair Augusto Carpio. – Jose Antonio Pacapac, Advocacy Program Officer, CODE-NGO