Informing the public that there is such a strategy is good. Showing the breakdown of funding is appreciated. BUT - and this is a MAJOR BUT - the Php1.17T total reported by the SOF is sorely misleading.
[2] It lumps together a) the budget of expenditures and b) the sources of financing. That should never be done because, that’s in effect, double counting. Thus, the sources of financing (830B in the pink square) should be deducted from the 1.17T.
[3] these are apples and oranges which should to be added separately. To be even more precise, I agree with what a former colleague’s suggestion: the graphic could also state the expenditure for which a specific source of financing was earmarked for.
[4] For instance, one of the multilateral financing to be extended to government is specifically meant for DOH. That might be too technical, but what’s another section with a few sentences that would explain the numbers, right?
[5] I’d like to believe this was simply an oversight, not propaganda. But what makes me quite suspicious that this isn’t deliberate bloating on the part of the SOF is the fact that the DBCC member departments are composed of a highly technical corps of civil servants.
[6] They do this stuff day in and day out. They are very much aware that the devil is in the details so they are always careful with the data.
[7] To be very candid, even if I’d like to give the leadership the benefit of the doubt, it still is UNACCEPTABLE for any DBCC member department to commit this kind of oversight.
[8] This ought to be basic stuff that economic managers and their immediate staff should know because obviously, it concerns their respective mandates.
[9] I can forgive media for interpreting and visualizing the data incorrectly. Public financial management terms are confusing. They aren’t the easiest to understand. If it wasn’t for years of immersion in the field, I wouldn’t know better myself.
[10] But inaccurate information from a government official? Man, that’s inexcusable.
Edit: “with a former colleague’s suggestion”
@rupertnotholmes Naisip ko lang. The easier way to correct this is to just delete the grand total. Okay naman to keep the subtotals for each pillar di ba?
