Senator Juan Edgardo Angara. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sonny Angara on Friday urged Malacanang to open up the process of realigning budgetary savings to a broader audience, saying that the budget bill should not be debated in the open only to be “adjusted behind close doors.”
While commending the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) move to invite the private sector, local governments and non-government organizations in the preparation of the national budget, Angara said the “openness” by which the budget was prepared in the executive branch and debated in Congress should also “characterize the period when the budget is being executed.”
“What I am saying is that the transparency which marks budget preparation and budget legislation must also be present in budget implementation. The open budget initiative should transcend all,” he said in a statement.
“We cannot have a system in which the budget bill is debated in the open, in plenary, only to have it adjusted behind closed doors,” he stressed.
Angara, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, said there should be a way in making the application of budget savings more participative.
“Paano ba ang proseso na sinusunod sa pag-gugol ng savings? Meron bang konsultasyon? If funds become available does the DBM issue a budget call?” Angara asked.
DBM is Department of Budget and Management being headed by Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad.
“If an agency, for example, has a need for more funds, what is the mechanism by which it will know that there is this freed amount which it can tap?” he further asked.
Angara said standards should be set in disbursing savings based “on need, urgency, capacity of the agency to utilize it, the common good that it will cause, (and the) progress it will generate.”
“While the use of savings is largely discretionary on the part of executive leaders, it will help if some standards are to be followed,” he said.
The senator said the involvement of the stakeholders should not end when the General Appropriation Act is printed.
” It must continue when large amounts of money are basically reappropriated,” he said.
Angara also pointed out the “use of savings” is a fixture in public expenditure management.
“It is here to stay. It is legal. It is constitutional. So let us make it more democratic,” the senator added.
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