Angara calls for transparency in use of gov’t savings

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara yesterday called for transparency in the use of government savings as President Aquino and his allies in Congress work on a measure that seeks to authorize the use of savings from the current budget.

Angara said the Palace should open up the process of realigning budgetary savings “to a broader audience so that rechanneled funds will have the imprint of having been determined through wider consultations.”

Angara’s statement came after Budget Secretary Florencio Abad admitted last week that the government needs to re-channel some funds under the current budget since some projects were not immediately implemented in areas affected by Typhoon Yolanda and other disasters in many provinces.

He issued the statement in the midst of public concern over how the government is utilizing savings after the Supreme Court found the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) partly unconstitutional.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, in the meantime, batted for the need to accelerate spending to enable the Aquino administration to meet its 6.5 to 7.5 percent target for economic growth.

During the budget presentation at the Senate, Abad had not yet divulged how much savings are generated due to the delay in implementation of some government projects.

Abad was, however, optimistic of accelerated spending with barely four months before the end of the fiscal year.

Angara noted that the openness by which the national budget is prepared in the executive branch and debated in Congress should also characterize the period when the budget is being executed.

“What I am saying is that the transparency which marks budget preparation and budget legislation must also be present in budget implementation. The open budget initiative should transcend all,” he said.

Angara, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, has expressed concern over how the executive branch had adjusted the budget allocations behind closed doors.

“We cannot have a system in which the budget bill is debated in the open, in plenary, only to have it adjusted behind closed doors,” he said.

“If an agency, for example, has a need for more funds, what is the mechanism by which it will know that there is this freed amount which it can tap?” he added.

Angara said standards should be set in disbursing savings based on need, urgency, capacity of the agency to utilize it, the common good that it will serve and progress it will generate.