Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto. (Senate PRIB file photo / Screen grab)
MANILA, Philippines — For Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, the President should not only order Cabinet officials to disclose their agencies’ spending but also make them release information on goods and services that were already delivered to the people.
“President [Rodrigo] Duterte should order government agencies to add the most important column in their monthly publication of funds spent, and that is for ‘goods and services delivered to the people,’” Recto said in a statement on Tuesday.
He explained that the word “spent” is a “broad term,” and is often used to “to disguise delays in the delivery of government programs and projects.”
“An agency can glowingly report that an allotment has been obligated, when what it really means is that it is just in the procurement phase,” Recto said.
“There is one litmus test in budget spending, and that is what are meant to be procured for the people have been received by them. This delivery receipt is the most important,” he added.
Recto’s statement comes after Duterte, in a public address aired Tuesday morning, ordered Cabinet members to disclose their agencies’ spending, including the COVID-19 response, either 15 days or monthly.
Duterte also ordered government officials to publish the notice of procurement and even bidders’ addresses in newspapers.
Recto, meanwhile, cited a situation if agencies do not disclose what has been distributed to the people.
“Pwede kasi i-report na nakabili na ng bigas, pero kung ito ay hindi pa naipamahagi sa taong bayan, o binubukbok lang sa warehouse, ano ang pakinabang ng mamamayan dito?”
(You can report that you already bought rice, but if this was not distributed to the people, or has only rotted in a warehouse, then how will this benefit the people?)
He also cited an example involving the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the government’s social amelioration program (SAP).
“DSWD had reported months ago that it had downloaded the bulk of the money for the SAP, but this hides the fact that the actual payout to beneficiaries has been hounded by delays,” he said.
Artificial spending, according to Recto, also happens when “an agency transfers funds to another, thereby beating the spending clock, preventing it from being reverted to the Treasury and reporting the money as spent.”
“This pasa-load type of procurement is window dressing,” the Senate President Pro Tempore said. “Ang ginagawa ng isang agency, tulad ng PNP , AFP, DOH at DOTR noon ay ililipat ang pondo sa DBM Procurement Service o sa Philippine International Trading Corp., a government corporation, at aatasang sila na ang mag-pa-bid.”
(What an agency does, like the PNP, AFP, DOH and DOTr before, is they will transfer the funds to the DBM Procurement Service or to the Philippine International Trading Corp., which is a government corporation, and will ask them to do the bidding.)
PNP is the Philippine National Police, the AFP is the Armed Forces of the Philippines, DOH is the Department of Health, DOTr is the Department of Transportation, and the DBM stands for the Department of Budget and Management.
“But in reality, funds are not immediately spent, and are merely parked in another agency. This subverts the very essence of cash budgeting, which seeks to accelerate disbursement,” Recto reasoned.
“This creates the illusion of money spent when what happened was the budgetary equivalent of passing the buck.”