The Commission on Audit (COA) has raised concerns over the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) release of around ₱3.4 million under the “Mag Negosyo Ta ‘Day” livelihood program, noting that project proposals were not properly evaluated for feasibility or viability.
State auditors reported that the program provided financial assistance to 128 individuals and 10 organizations in 2024, amounting to ₱1.92 million and ₱1.5 million, respectively.
While beneficiaries were qualified, COA said their proposals “were not evaluated” by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) or the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), which were responsible for assessing project feasibility and economic viability.
“The feasibility and economic viability of the project proposals of the 138 economic beneficiaries both individuals and NGOs/CSOs were not reviewed by PDIC and DTI due to absence of any evaluation or assessment report which will support the review of the proposal of each prospective beneficiary and no results were endorsed to the OVP,” the COA report read.
It also noted, “Moreover, no written agreement was prepared by OVP with the PDIC and DTI relative to their responsibility for the review of the project proposals of the beneficiaries and subsequent endorsement to the OVP.”
The program’s focal person explained that evaluating proposals was challenging due to the lack of a formal agreement with other agencies. In response, the OVP issued a revised manual of operations on October 29, 2024.
“Item B, Section VII of the revised manual provides that for both individual and group application, SO or SPD staff is required to ensure that the project proposal and/or proposed livelihood/microenterprise is viable,” the report said.
The OVP also launched a reorientation on the manual for Satellite Office leads on February 6, 2025, and created a project assessment tool to evaluate applicants’ proposals.