Despite the 99.87 percent utilization of the more than P10.8 billion poured into the Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), there were issues unearthed on the beneficiaries of the financial assistance. During the height of Covid-19 pandemic, DOLE implemented its CAMP known as Bayanihan 1 and 2. CAMP provided P5,000 one-time financial assistance to affected workers in private establishments regardless of employment status. In its performance audit report, the Commission on Audit (COA) revealed that DOLE received P3.31 billion allocation under CAMP Bayanihan 1. For Bayanihan 2, DOLE subdivided assistance into three components -- CAMP Regular, P4.18 billion; CAMP for Education Sector, P300 million; and CAMP Tourism Sector, P3.10 billion. But COA said it found that DOLE disbursed P31.07 million to 6,214 ineligible beneficiaries and P39.19 million to 7,838 probable ineligible beneficiaries. It said these these14,052 ineligible and probably ineligible beneficiaries had already received financial assistance from other support programs of the government such as the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) Program by Social Security System (SSS) and Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Social Amelioration Program (SAP), and their monthly gross salary were above the P40,000 threshold. "Based on the interview, DOLE only relied on applicants’ self-declaration since there was no available and complete centralized database that would serve as a basis for determining whether an applicant already received financial assistance from other programs," the COA said. "In addition, only the DOLE, Department of Finance (DOF), and SSS were able to have a data sharing agreement on their beneficiaries,” it said. It also said that 33 beneficiaries received financial assistance from all three programs, while 6,181 received from both CAMP and SBWS. Around 5,260 individuals got from both CAMP and SAP, while 2,578 workers with a salary grade above P40,000 still got assistance from CAMP, it added. The regional office (RO) of Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) explained that there was a "timing" issue that caused ineligible beneficiaries to receive assistance, COA said. Since the list from other government agencies were still not available, they were not able to cross-reference their names, it said. In the case of DOLE’s Region V and VII, COA said that some beneficiaries misinterpreted the options provided and mistakenly ticked the check box. "The DOLE experience in curtailing the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic through the CAMP highlighted the need for more robust planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring, and reporting," the COA said. "While the program ceased its implementation, the same measure may be adopted in case of similar emergencies and pandemics taking into consideration the lessons learned," it said. In the future, the COA recommended that DOLE should provide clearer criteria not only on eligibility but also on prioritization of intended beneficiaries. DOLE should also strengthen its coordination with other agencies by identifying their roles and responsibilities, and continue recovering refunds from beneficiaries who are ineligible to receive financial assistance from the program, it said. "DOLE management agreed that moving forward, they shall maximize efforts to generate a clean list of beneficiaries (which have been cross-checked with recipients of other financial assistance programs) to ensure the detection of multiple/duplicate applications before they will be processed for approval," COA noted.