THE chairman of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Monday said that if only the Small Town Lottery (STL) operators would remit their actual revenues faithfully, the income of the agency would be large enough to meet the demands of the many indigent patients.
“Batay sa pag-aaral ng gaming department ng PCSO, napakalaki ng potential na makolekta, pero halos kakarampot lamang ang pumapasok. [According to a study by the gaming department of the PCSO, there is much to be collected but only a pittance is remitted],” PCSO Chairman Erineo S. Maliksi said.
Maliksi said he would institute corrective measures to improve financial health, as well as expand the services of the state-owned charity institution.
Maliksi said a study is being made to ask the STL operators to cooperate, since his appeal is for the benefits of the many poor patients who are given financial help by the PCSO.
He added that a STL was introduced to defeat jueteng, but the plan did not materialize.
“Many of our kababayan have told me that in many places, the STL operators are the same persons who operate jueteng.”
Maliksi added that the STL earnings are low because the income earned from them are not remitted and were often absconded by the operators.
The PCSO chief said that, based on the PCSO’s performance in 2014, the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations (GCG) paid special attention to the state enterprise’s P32.324-billion revenue for the year, which is substantially short of its target of P34.5 billion.
Maliksi said he has ordered a thorough study so they could take the necessary steps to stop the income “hemorrhage” and allow the agency to deliver its mandate to the needy. The results of the in-house study would hopefully guide the PCSO team to expand the number of beneficiaries and improve the quality of charity services.
In addition to the revenue setback, the GCG reported the PCSO’s failure to deliver on time or process within the required five-day processing period requests for financial assistance involving P100,000 or below.
The same slow process was noted for financial assistance worth more than P100,000.
The GCG noted that the PCSO failed to deliver its commitment under its program, called Capacity-building Packages for Rural Health Units and Barangay Health Centers nationwide, which was finalized in 2013. The PCSO also failed to achieve its target of raising military and National Police hospitals to Department of Health standard on equipment as programmed.
Asked about the failure of the agency to deliver the promised 150 ambulances, where only three were actually delivered, Maliksi said the negative reports happened during the previous administration.
He said the GCG rejected the PCSO’s explanation that it was caused by a complaint filed by a losing bidder, which prevented it from procuring the ambulances committed earlier.
Maliksi was recently named PCSO chairman vice Margie Juico, who resigned for health reasons.
However, there were speculations that the failing grades the GCG gave the agency were responsible for the early exit of Juico.