MANILA, Philippines — Swamped with tons of applications on state corporations five months after taking over, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno wants to amend the law that aimed to strictly monitor government companies and their bosses.
Specifically, Diokno said he wants the term of office of directors on government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) increased to three years from one year "for efficiency."
"I am piled with applications waiting to be signed. There are still a lot," said Diokno, an ex-officio member of the Governance Commission on GOCCs (GCG).
GCG was created under Republic Act 10149 of 2012, an offshoot of then President Benigno Aquino III's State of the Nation Address that criticized huge bonuses of executives on underperforming state firms.
Under Section 17 of the law, each appointive director could only stay for a year in office or could be on holdover capacity "until a successor is appointed."
GCG is tasked to screen applicants submitted by each GOCC based on "fit and proper rule" before giving a shortlist to the president who shall appoint the directors.
Each director is also evaluated every year as a basis for their compensation and bonuses.
But the process had become tedious, Diokno said, to the point that GCG is still not yet finish filling up positions to date. The latest known appointment was that of Emmanuel Dooc as new president of the Social Security System.
To make the matter worse, GCG is yet to find a new chair after Jaime Ma. Flores resigned from his post, for unknown reasons, last month.
"We are yet to find a chair but there is an OIC (officer-in-charge) and the four of us are continuously working," the budget chief told reporters.
Aside from Diokno, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez also sits as ex-officio member, joined by Commissioners Michael Cloribel and Samuel Dagpin Jr.
"I will talk with Sonny (Dominguez) about this because the formula is if you don't perform well after a year, then you're out. That's wrong," Diokno said.
"You have to apply an appropriate formula wherein you at least give these people power at least to do their job, while keeping an eye on them," he said.
Sought for comment, Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Holdings Inc., agreed with Diokno.
While the one-year term for directors was patterned after the private sector, Del Castillo said this "may not be applicable on the government because of politics."
"GCG is an added bureaucracy. They should be trusting the Office of the President in terms of appointment," he said in a phone interview.
"Nevertheless, I agree also that you need credible people in the corporations, but if they will only stay for one year, they could be more prone to politics," Del Castillo said.
He stressed that unlike private firms where "only performance is the basis of appointment," politicking and the need for continuity make the government different.
"If you ask the GOCCs, they really could not perform because of so much monitoring. Aside from GCG, they are also answerable to COA (Commission on Audit)," he said.
Besides COA and GCG, the Department of Finance (DOF) also monitors the financial performance of state firms, getting contributions to national coffers and keeping an eye on their debts.
In October, DOF data showed government collected P4.9 billion from the Bureau of the Treasury, down 13 percent year-on-year.
National Treasurer Roberto Tan said the decline could be traced from "lower dividends on shares of stocks from state-owned and -controlled corporations."