Mayor’s call: Speed up ‘grassroots’ projects

GUAGUA, Pampanga—It took almost a year before this flood-prone town in Pampanga province got what civil society groups and the local government had wanted for years—a set of life-saving equipment.

Slow as the P2.4-million project was, local leaders were not complaining about the Aquino administration’s grassroots participatory budgeting process (GPBP).

“Projects are slow but sure. But there must be some way of speeding it up so the people can immediately benefit from the projects,” Guagua Mayor Dante Torres said of GPBP, a program that involves civil society groups in identifying and monitoring projects.

It was known as bottom-up budgeting when it was introduced in 2013.

Throughout Central Luzon, only 135 projects, or 18 percent of the 770 projects funded through GPBP in 2014, were completed as of Jan. 15, according to records from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

At least 140 projects (18 percent) are ongoing, 300 (39 percent) are ready for implementation, 176 (23 percent) have been proposed and 19 (2 percent) have been discontinued.

Of the 24 GPBP projects in Guagua last year, five have been completed, 12 are ongoing, two are on the pipeline, one has been discontinued and four have been proposed. These projects cost P15 million, the standard amount allotted for towns and cities.

In the region, the GPBP projects from the budget of 13 agencies amounted to P747 million in 2014 and P1.972 billion this year.

The agriculture, social welfare, health and education departments have the largest allotments for GPBP.

Torres said national government agencies were slow in releasing funds.

Cautious

“The maximum time is six months because, I think, they’re cautious of the [Commission on Audit] and do comply with the check-and-balance process,” he said.

Torres, an accountant, said the process could be fast-tracked if local governments would take accountability for public funds released through GPBP.

“Our municipal social welfare and development office complies fast [by submitting] a liquidation report on time. This was why we were able to get the next tranches of funds,” he said.

Some projects take time because agencies directly implement these.

The Department of Education has not built additional classrooms through GPBP, still awaiting approval from the Department of Public Works and Highways, the DILG report said.

Several projects are awaiting resolutions by local councils or other documents.

Several projects are outside of the GPBP menu for health, education, infrastructure, social welfare, environment and livelihood.

What is not quantified in GPBP is what Torres called “democracy outcome,” referring to the participation of the private sector.

“We in the local government can always prepare the budget. But are these projects the actual needs of our people? That’s where the civil society groups help,” he said. “This is why I oppose the proposal of some congressmen to abolish GPBP.”

Florida Dijan, DILG regional director, said the agency’s field officers and those involved in these projects met last Dec. 18 and on Jan. 14 to find solutions to the delays.

“We’re doing closer monitoring because we are targeting 100-percent completion of the 2014 projects as soon as possible such that the 2015 releases won’t also be delayed,” Dijan said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon