The Commission on Audit (COA) has reminded the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) to liquidate the P38.2 million outstanding balance of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) program which was terminated on March 31, 2024.

TFBM was an inter-agency task force group organized by former president Rodrigo Duterte in June 2017 to help in the recovery and rehabilitation of war-stricken Marawi. The task force head was the chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

In its 2024 annual audit report, the COA said that TFBM has an outstanding balance of P38,219,359.25 which is recorded in its subsidiary ledger under "Due to NGAs."

TFBM was abolished effective Dec. 31, 2023, with full dissolution by March 31, 2024 to streamline rehabilitation efforts and reduce bureaucratic redundancy, it said.

Thus, the COA said that the TFBM was required to revert the remaining balance of its trust fund to the Office of the President (OP) and submit a final report of disbursements by March 31, 2024.

It said that the TFBM was granted a one-month extension until April 30, 2024 to address transition challenges. Despite this extension, it lamented that the remaining fund of P293,670,739.55 was transferred to the OP only on Sept. 18, 2024.

A further review of the records revealed that out of the P206,329,260.45 utilized fund, only P168,109,900.27 had been liquidated, which left an unliquidated balance of P38,219,359.25, it said.

The annual audit report also stated: "Most of the unliquidated balance pertains to prior years' disbursements, which, although utilized, have not been properly liquidated. This indicates that while funds were disbursed and spent, the necessary documentation and reconciliation process remain incomplete, preventing the formal closure of these transactions."

The COA pointed out that while the issue of unliquidated funds was already flagged in the 2023 annual audit report, it still remained unresolved in 2024 which the audit team dubbed as "a systematic failure in financial management and fund liquidation processes."

On inquiry, it said its auditors found that efforts to reconcile unliquidated balances were hampered by several challenges such as absence of supporting documentation, failure to properly route Reports of Disbursement (RDs) through the Accounting Division before submission to the OP, and inability of the Accounting Division to validate liquidation due to incomplete or missing attachments.

Thus, it reminded DHSUD to demand the immediate liquidation and substantiation of its funds from concerned officers and submit a detailed itemization of the unutilized amount.