COA flags NDA for death of 2,614 dairy animals

The Commission on Audit has called the attention of the National Dairy Authority for a total death of 2,614 dairy animals from 2013 to 2018.

In its performance audit report on herd build-up and carabao development programs, COA said the deaths of the dairy animals caused the loss of P346 million.

Based on the data of the Philippine Carabao Center, there were 3,284 carabao deaths from 2013 to 2018 with a loss of P471 million.

COA also flagged the NDA’s P230-million milk program, saying the NDA was not able to accomplish its target importation of dairy animals by 74 percent due to unfunded importation plan, failed bidding, unavailability of dairy stocks, and the foot-and-mouth disease.

It said the importation of 3,060 animals as of Dec. 31, 2018 was not enough.

“Importation efforts of the NDA were made without comprehensive research on the desired breed acclimatized to build up even if the Dairy Training and Research Institute is one of the members of the Dairy Industry Board,” the report read.

“The objectives of increasing the local milk sufficiency were not attained primarily due to insufficient number of dairy animals. The yearly local milk sufficiency levels for 2013 to 2018 have remained at a little over one percent, making the country 99 percent dependent on dairy importations,” COA said.

“The number of dairy animals is 74 percent short of the 198,977 target, while milk production is 54 percent short of its 2.8 percent target,” it added.