The Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the National Food Authority (NFA) for the P5 billion worth of loss it incurred after it sold bags of rice for a low price from 2019 to 2023.
According to Maki Pulido’s report on “24 Oras” on Wednesday, state auditors noted that the NFA sold over 13 million bags of rice for only P25 per kilo instead of P33 per kilo.
The NFA explained that the bags of rice that were sold for such a price were getting stale.
But COA said that the NFA should not be selling rice in the first place as provided by the Rice Tariffication Law.
COA also pointed out that the agency is already selling high quality rice.
To recall, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered a six-month suspension against 139 NFA officials for lowball sales of rice last March.
“Wala ka namang nakitang P30 sa market,” said Jayson Cainglet of SINAG.
(You can no longer buy rice for P30 per kilo in the market.)
“Kung retailer din sila, plus P3 or P4 sa retail price nila. So dapat may mabibili kang P30, pero wala kang makitang P30 noong panahon na ‘yun.”
(If they are a retailer, then their retail price is P3 or P4 higher. But you can’t find rice that costs P30 per kilo during that time.)
The NFA’s current mandate includes storing rice for calamities and procuring palay from local farmers.
However, COA said that NFA’s buffer stock in 2023 was not enough despite having P9 billion to purchase 495,000 metric tons of palay.
“The NFA was not able to meet the national rice buffer stocking requirement of 300,000 metric tons (MT) equivalent to nine (9) days of the average Daily Consumption Requirement (DCR) at any given time, as the monthly average of the rice buffer stock was only 71.486 MT or equivalent to 2.10 days average DCR, despite the agency’s full receipt of the P9.00 billion subsidy from the National Government for the 495,000 MT targeted palay procurement,” the latest audit report read.
The NFA only spent almost P1.5 billion which led to a deficiency of 84.16% in its buffer stock, the COA added.
Further, COA said that NFA could have failed to purchase the expected volume of palay as farmers may have chosen to sell their palays to traders who offered a higher price.
But SINAG said there are other areas in the country where traders procured palays at a lower cost.
“Doon dapat sila nag-intervene sa mga lugar na mababa bilihan,” said Cainglet.
(They should have intervened in areas where the price is low.)
For its part, NFA explained that among the reasons for the low procurement were the stiff competition and aggressive procurement activities of private traders; quality issues of some palay harvests; lack of post-harvest facility; and high prevailing palay prices due to high demand, and the export ban in India for non-basmati rice.
The NFA added that it will follow COA’s recommendation and will aim to keep its 300,000 MT of rice buffer stock.
With regards to the lowball selling of rice, the NFA said that it has “already crafted the ‘Implementing Guidelines on the Disposition of Milled Rice Buffer Stocks and Pricing Mechanism’ which will be finalized and presented in the forthcoming NFA Council Meeting.”—Vince Ferreras/LDF, GMA Integrated News
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