In an interview, Alcala said he has already explained his side to President Aquino following an Inquirer report that the Department of Agriculture released almost P90 million to the fake NGOs linked to businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.
He noted that it is usually lawmakers who endorse the NGOs.
Alcala told reporters it was only in August of last year that they accepted receiving and processing agri-fishery projects upon the insistence of lawmakers.
He also said that the project proposal came with a letter of endorsement from lawmakers endorsing their preferred NGOs.
He also said that only a fraction of an P83 million allocation that was supposed to be go to Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation was released because of the safeguards set up by the department. The foundation is one of the NGOs linked to Napoles.
The DA chief has also relieved DA Assistant Secretary for Finance Ophelia Agawin of her duties in the selection of accredited NGOs by the department.
She was also asked to submit her reply to allegations that she chose the bogus NGOs that received millions of pesos in pork barrel funds.
Agawin was replaced by DA Assistant Secretary Edilberto de Luna as chair of the NGO-PO accreditation committee.
Agawin, however, will continue in her functions as assistant secretary for finance.
Alcala said he expects the Internal Audit Service to submit their initial report by tomorrow.
He vowed that whoever is guilty in his department would be punished, saying he does not tolerate corruption of taxpayers' money.
The DA reported a 1.4 percent growth increase in the agriculture industry in the first 6 months of 2013.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
