Senate committee OKs AMLC budget for 2014

Sen. Loren Legarda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The proposed 2014 budget of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), among the smallest in government, was approved by the Senate finance committee Thursday with few questions.

Their P28 million expediture program was among the smallest in government, Senator Loren Legarda, who headed the finance sub-committee, noted during the hearing.

Of the P28 million, P27 million was allocated to maintenance and other operating expenditures (MOOE) while P1 million was for capital outlay.

Attorney Julia Bacay-Abad, executive director of the AMLC, said that their proposed budget had been reduced from P40 million.

AMLC budget for 2013 was P20 million. Abad said that the salaries of AMLC personnel were covered in the budget of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and was no longer included in their proposed budget.

Abad noted that the reduction of budget was in the IT services department particularly for the upgrading of IT software.

“We need to maintain and update these software but unfortunately the budget was reduced substantially,” she said.

“It will be very difficult for us to maintain operations,” Abad answered when asked by Lagarda whether the reduction of the budget would adversely affect the AMLC.

Legarda then asked whether the AMLC could submit a memorandum looking into how the almost P12 million that was reduced could be reallocated from other sources.