The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD 7) is adopting the Capitol’s QR-coded system of releasing assistance to its beneficiaries.
DSWD 7 director Shalaine Marie Lucero, in a letter dated May 17, 2024, informed Gov. Gwen Garcia that the agency would like to partner with the Capitol in implementing the Cash for Food Subsidy PLUS project which identifies 10,249 indigent persons with disabilities in the province.
The beneficiaries, duly screened and identified by DSWD 7, will receive aid amounting to P500 per month for the months of June to December, or P3,500 in all.
With program budget of P35.8 million, Lucero believed that distribution will be more efficient and transparent through the QR-coded cards.
“The distribution of Cash for Food Subsidy will be through a uniquely encrypted QR-coded card system that the Province has initiated and put in place,” the letter reads.
“Purchase of the basic commodities shall be done quarterly amounting to P1,500 at the accredited distribution centers or merchants established through partnership with Cebu Province,” it added.
The use of QR cards in distributing assistance to beneficiaries has served the Capitol so well, such as in the 1.8-billion-peso Dasig Sugbo aid after Supertyphoon Odette, the distribution of assistance in the hundred-million-peso Sugbo Negosyo program, as well as in the purchase of affordable rice at the Sugbo Merkadong Barato stalls.
It achieves two aims: safeguard public funds from being spent for unintended purpose, as well as easily monitor the implementation of the program because purchases and payments are well documented by the system. | SN