The Commission on Audit (CoA), the constitutional body mandated to examine the accounts of government agencies, has flagged the Department of Agriculture (DA) over P13.57 billion in undocumented inventory transactions, P13.35 billion in unreconciled inventory balances, and delays across major agricultural programs and infrastructure projects.

In its annual audit report, state auditors cited record-keeping deficiencies across DA offices, including P4.44 billion in uncounted or unreported inventory and P6.19 million in accounting recognition errors. The audit also found that procurement and distribution records covering P13.57 billion in inventory transactions lacked supporting documents. Missing documentation leaves auditors unable to independently verify transactions, and agencies named in annual audit reports are expected to act on the resulting recommendations, which CoA tracks across successive audit cycles.

Separately, five DA offices failed to return P555.12 million in dormant cash balances and unspent program funds to the Bureau of the Treasury or their source agencies by yearend, as required. CoA said the failure was "prejudicing the general public of funds which could have augmented the scarce resources of the National Government in the implementation of other programs and projects."

The audit likewise identified severe implementation delays in 27 subprojects worth P3.81 billion under the foreign-assisted Philippine Rural Development Project. Auditors found facilities worth P1.15 billion with structural defects or inadequate maintenance, along with 28 subprojects costing P279.31 million that were either nonoperational or operating below their target capacities. Other implementation deficiencies affected subprojects worth P471.66 million, while three enterprise subprojects valued at P45 million were canceled. Taken together, the findings span the project cycle from construction quality through post-completion operations.

The National Organic Agriculture Program also faced management and implementation deficiencies. The DA failed to issue required monitoring and evaluation guidelines and did not establish an approved marketing agenda for organic, according to CoA. Procurement bottlenecks and other constraints left 56 of the program's 94 planned activities for 2024 and 2025 either unfinished or only partially completed.

"These delays were primarily attributed to procurement issues and other implementation constraints, which affected the timely delivery of benefits to local farmers," CoA said.

Other agricultural programs missed their implementation targets as well. The Digital Agriculture Project failed to complete eight of its 11 targeted activities, while the KADIWA Financial Grant Assistance Program reached only 131 of its 289 intended beneficiaries, the audit noted.

Auditors also cited inadequate field validation in updating farmer and farm parcel records under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) across nine regions.

"As a result, unchecked or incorrect information were approved and encoded in the registry, potentially affecting the accurate identification and targeting of beneficiaries for agricultural programs and interventions that rely on RSBSA records," CoA said.

The report further showed that the DA carried P7.94 billion in unsettled audit suspensions, disallowances and charges at the end of 2025, after settling P1.58 billion in previously issued audit notices. Suspensions, disallowances and charges are accountability notices that remain on an agency's books until they are resolved or settled. The agency implemented 151 of 295 prior audit recommendations, while 35 remained unimplemented and 109 were reiterated or revised by auditors — a carryover mechanism through which unresolved items from earlier reports are raised again, meaning the DA's response to the current findings will be taken up in future audit cycles.

— Pexcel John Bacon, BusinessWorld