The Aquino administration continues to deal with a bureaucracy that became used to government releasing funds without regard for existing regulations, as was the supposed practice in the previous Arroyo administration.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said this by way of explaining the present policy of releasing funds meant for positions in the judiciary and other constitutional institutions only after the posts are filled.
This Aquino administration policy has encountered opposition as it is seen to violate the fiscal autonomy of the agencies affected.
Abad argued that government has the obligation is to make sure that the authorization given by Congress under the General Appropriations Act was “respected and followed.”
When Congress allocates funds for the salaries of judges, lawyers, auditors and accountants, government has the duty to ensure that the agencies concerned would spend the funds in accordance with what the legislature intended, he said.
“You have to understand where we are coming from,” said Abad.
He cited how the previous Arroyo administration had allegedly “loosely given away as loans without collateral” P7.5 billion meant for farm-to-marker roads and P10.3 billion
in Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Funds, which, he claimed, have remained unaccounted for.
“We want to put stop to that kind of a practice so therefore we need to strengthen the internal controls of these agencies,” he said at a Malacañang press briefing.
Abad explained that it was only the top that has changed, as the bureaucracy has remained intact.
“For those nine-and-a-half years [of the Arroyo administration], perhaps we can’t blame most of them because that was how it was in the past, they were shaped in that kind of system or administration of government funds” he said.