GMA’S P1.28B YOUTH PROGRAM TAINTED WITH IRREGULARITIES – COA

FORMER President Gloria Arroyo’s program to hire out-of-school-youth may have had a noble intention but its implementation was riddled with irregularities that even the Commission on Audit (COA) cannot say if the beneficiaries received the salary promised them.

In fact, the Audit commission doubted if the street sweepers employed under the Out-of-School Youth Serving Towards Economic Recovery (Oyster) program that had a funding of P1.28 billion were justly paid because the project lacked “structured monitoring mechanism” from the two agencies ordered to implement it—the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Philippine National Police (PNP.)