Senate, House to scrutinize 3-T budget for 2016
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto yesterday said underspending by the Aquino administration of its annual budget would dominate committee hearings and plenary debates on the proposed 2016 3-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA or national budget).
Recto pointed out that the government underspent some 827 mil-
lion a day last year, as disbursement fell short of program by 302.7 billion. Economists say underspending of the national budget has negative effects on the economy.
Malacañang submitted the proposed 2016 national budget to Congess last Tuesday.
The national budget is a spending measure, Recto said but it ceases to be when the funds “are spent slowly, spent late or not spent at all.’’
More than the “peso signs” in the proposed three trillion-peso budget, lawmakers will be looking for provisions that will quicken the use of funds and lead to early completion of projects.
“If it contains the same provisions, then we’re dead. What are the innovations on how to spend the budget wisely and fast?
Had there been no underspending, the government could have built around 1,000 classrooms a day or build 80 kilometers of roads every 24 hours out of the amount not spent, Recto said.
Lawmakers from both Houses of Congress would like to see how to “turbocharge spending but without sacrificing transparency, or how to increase volume of spending without violating laws.”
“This is the sixth and last budget of the Aquino government. And every year, we’re assured that money will be spent on time. Like in the movies, this is being billed as Fast and Furious Spending 6. Hopefully this time, Malacanang should be true to its word because its tenure ends in 50 weeks, Recto added.
But he absolved the Department of Budget Management (DBM) for the slow spending.
“It’s not the DBM’s fault. The blame is on the government agencies.”
Recto urged his fellow legislators to “do a system check on where the spending bottlenecks are.” “If there are planning mistakes, procurement challenges, red tape, lack of technical personnel to implement projects or simply a case of overbudgeting, then these will be known when we grill agencies,” he said.
2016 budget has ‘pork’
Despite assurances that the 2016 budget no longer drips with ‘pork,’ the Makabayan bloc insists there is still and vowed to heavily scrutinize the 2016 national budget to ensure that it won’t be used as the administration’s financial war chest for the 2016 polls.
“There is pork barrel in the 2016 budget,” Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares insisted. Only the congressional pork was declared illegal by the Supreme Court and the presidential pork still remains.
President Aquino and Vice-President Jejomar Binay are both seeking higher budgets for their respective offices. The President has proposed a 2.86-billion budget which is higher compared to the
2.6 billion this year. The proposed budget of the Office of the Vice President, on the other hand, is 234 million, up from 226 million this year.
Colmenares branded as “complete lie” Malacanang’s line that the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) no longer exist in the proposed 2016 national appropriations.
Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who leads the Independent bloc said they will assert their role in thoroughly scrutinizing the national budget, particularly the government’s allocation for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to ensure transparency and proper use of funds.
“It’s our role to scrutinize the national budget for next year to guarantee that no funds are misused. We will dissect and analyze the contents of the national expenditures,” he said (with a report from Genalyn D. Kabiling)