THE Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) Secretariat is set to conclude a four-day National Exit Conference being held in Bolinao, Pangasinan, to audit the performance of agencies implementing the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp) for the period covering 2009 to 2015.
The 2017 Carp Audit National Exit Conference kicked off on May 22 and will be concluded on May 25.
The meeting comes on the heels of recent public pronouncements made by President Duterte to implement another round of agrarian-reform program beyond what is currently covered by the Carp and the Carp Extension with Reform. The new round is expected to include unclassified lands of public domain (by virtue of a presidential proclamation), government-owned titled agricultural lands (to be transferred to the DAR by virtue of an executive order) and private agricultural lands that can still be covered by the program (through an Act of Congress extending the CARP for third time).
Undersecretary Luis Meinrado C. Pangulayan, who serves as PARC council secretary, said the audit of the implementing agencies aims to rate the performance of concerned government agencies in the implementation of the CARP, particularly the distribution of land to landless farmers.
“The goal of the CARP audit is to ensure the proper utilization of the agrarian-reform fund as it relates to the physical performance of the agencies,” a statement by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said.
“This audit would also help us evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of CARP implementation in the countryside,” Pañgulayan was quoted in the statement as saying.
The CARP audit is an activity of the Audit Management and Investigation Committee (Amic), a body formed by the PARC to ensure the transparency and accountability of the agrarian-reform program.
“This is being conducted as a response to the call for an assessment of CARP implementation roused by both the Houses of Congress and other stakeholders of the program,” Pañgulayan noted.
Prior to the National Exit Conference, field audit teams (FAT) were formed in nine selected regions in the country, PARC Secretariat Director James Arsenio Ponce said.
Each FAT conducted field audits based on the audit plan and methodologies approved by the Amic. The FATs completed the audit in two months.