GOCC regulator to submit revised charter proposals within the year

THE Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) said its proposal to revise its charter is still being worked on and should be submitted to Congress within this year.

“We are working on the proposal,” GCG chairman Marius P. Corpus told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the GCG Gender and Development Conference last week.

He said the latest draft proposal is expected to be submitted to Congress “maybe within this year.”

Last year, the GCG floated plans to amend its charter to strengthen its power to sanction government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) that it oversees.

Republic Act No. 10149, which created the GCG, does not give the commission power to investigate and sanction underperforming GOCCs and its officials.

“We don’t have coercive power; our powers are mostly advisory,” Mr. Corpus said last year.

Proposed amendments to the charter also include upgrading positions within the GCG, with its staff often being “pirated” by other GOCCs, according to the chairman.

“That’s happening because compensation in other government agencies is higher,” Mr. Corpus said.

In December 2022, the GCG sent its proposals to Senator Allan Peter S. Cayetano, who headed the Senate Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises in the 18th Congress.

Previous amendments included the standardization of the definition of GOCCs, as well as authorizing the GCG to consolidate, rationalize, and integrate GOCCs into national government agencies. It also proposed fixed terms of office for the GCG chairman and commissioners, as well as the creation of an office for the GCG executive director.

It also proposed that the GCG be granted subpoena and contempt powers, and the authority to determine incentive programs for employees. —