The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) wishes to clarify the findings stated in the 2020 Commission on Audit (COA) report released recently, wherein it is stipulated that the Service Contracting Program of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and LTFRB utilized only 1% of the allocated budget for the program.
To set the records straight, with the actual funds downloaded to LTFRB only in November 2020, the Service Contracting Program was immediately implemented to incentivize Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) drivers and operators who were given permission to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the LTFRB and the Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) was only signed in December 2020, which govern the distribution of cash subsidies to eligible beneficiaries of different modes of public land transportation through LBP’s crediting to subsisting LBP accounts or subsisting other bank accounts or e-money/wallet of GCASH or PAYMAYA via InstaPay or PESONet.
Therefore, it is misleading to angle certain reports and columns that only 1% was used from the P5.56-B funds for the Service Contracting Program, where in fact, the 1% utilization rate only covers the implementation month of December 2020, which is also the coverage/extent of the COA report that was released.
Further, to ensure strict compliance with the service contracting agreement, the drivers/operators were required to complete the orientation and to submit required documents to secure a permit to operate.
The LTFRB through its Technical Working Group (TWG) and the Program Implementing Unit (PIU) took reasonable efforts to address the lack of manpower and streamed down the process without compromising the integrity and reliability of data.
As of June 30, 2021, P1.5 Billion was released to beneficiary drivers nationwide and for procurement of the Systems Manager, responsible in the development and management of all project systems. Wherein, initial payouts of P4,000 were provided to 23,410 drivers; one-time onboarding incentives of P25,000 were provided to 8,461 drivers; one-time onboarding incentives of P20,000 were provided to 702 drivers; and; 18,864 drivers received their weekly payouts. To date, the LTFRB is in close coordination with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the release of funds amounting to P3.3 Billion on the remaining account payables.
Regional Disbursement Breakdown:
NCR: P 899,283,017
Region I: P 30,880,623
Region II: P 22,700,504
Region III: P 66,521,375
Region IV: P 100, 976, 294
Region V: P 961, 133
Region VI: P 57,889,214
Region VII: P 14, 594,682
Region VIII: P 2,122,413
Region IX: P 21,065,854
Region X: P 28,938,937
Region XI: P 17,494,636
Region XII: P 81, 798,612
CARAGA: P 72,533,642
CAR: P 26,635,722
Driver Participants:
Registered Drivers- 70,303
Uploaded Drivers- 50,547
Oriented Drivers- 59, 153
Executed Contracts- 50,068
Rest assured that the LTFRB is committed to helping the DOTr achieve its goal in improving the public transport system towards the development of long-term solutions in the service of our drivers, operators, and the public in general, especially during this time of the pandemic.
#LTFRB #DOTrPH #ServiceContractingProgram
(LTFRB) -bny
