Following a report claiming the Department of Tourism-Region VI (DOT-6) is holding on to P19 million, DOT-6 Director, Atty. Helen Catalbas, called the characterization “misleading” and said the funding is not part of the regular DOT-6 budget.
According to the Commission on Audit (COA), the DOT-6 funding was part of a total P1.52 billion said to be unspent for fiscal year 2016.
Catalbas said the P19 million is part of the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB) program and not the regular budget.
“I am only following rules,” she said. “Why would I release millions of pesos when LGUs (local government units) are not following the rules?”
DOT-6 still has until the end of the year to release BuB funds.
Catalbas, however, said she would rather have the funding sent back to the Bureau of Treasury, rather than having it disallowed by the COA.
The DOT-6 chief added she has never been served a disallowance report by COA./WDJ