Gov’t capacity to deliver infra projects up for review
THE Senate’s review of the proposed 2018 Budget, estimated at P3.7 trillion, will focus on the government’s “ability to utilize the appropriations for public works,” Senate President ProTempore Ralph Recto said on Monday.
He added in a statement that the review will determine which projects have been delivered, delayed or derailed and document instances of underspending.
“It will serve a dual purpose. First, identify the fat which can be rechanneled to good programs like free public college. Second, we can cut overhead and frivolous expenses, so we can in turn reduce the number of new taxes the government is asking Congress to impose,” he said.
He reiterated that the executive department’s “absorptive capacity” will have an impact on the Senate debates on the administration’s proposed tax reform program.
According to the statement, a preliminary estimate circulated among senators pegged at P185.8 billion the amount of unreleased appropriations in 2016, apart from the unobligated allotments of P410.8 billion.
The “agencies of interest,” according to Mr. Recto, include the Education, Health, Transportation, Agriculture, and Public Works and Highways departments.
The statement further noted that in 2017, the Education department ( DepEd) was given P109.3 billion to build 47,492 new classrooms and P2.47 billion for 66,492 school desks, furniture and fixtures. For 2018, the proposed budget is P106.1 billion for 47,000 new classrooms and P3.47 billion for 84,781 school desks, furniture and fixtures.
For the Department of Health’s (DoH’s) Health Facilities Enhancement Program, P24.19 billion was allotted in 2017 while the budget increased for 2018 to P29.03 billion for the same program.
“In both DoH and DepEd, they still have inherited backlog of deliverables from 2016,” Mr. Recto noted.
As for the absorptive capacity of the National Irrigation Administration, Mr. Recto said the agency has a budget of P38.4 billion as well as a request for next year, pegged at P41.9 billion.
Furthermore according to Mr. Recto this year’s national budget for the rail sector was P22.1 billion. For 2018, P25.99 billion is being proposed as the administration tries to jumpstart multiple stalled projects.
“We will be examining both ledgers. Income and spending. Bakit ka hihingi ng ganito kalaking bagong revenues kung hindi mo naman nagagasta? ( Why are they asking for these funds if previous appropriations have gone unspent?” he said.
Recto said he wanted to find out what the roadblocks are to effective spending.
The Senate briefing for the Development Budget Coordinating Committee on the Proposed 2018 National Expenditure Program is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 16. —