In this @rapplerdotcom article by @jodeszgavilan, I shared why we need to take an interest in the budget and how we as ordinary citizens can engage that process.
Last year, @iLEAD_PH convened the People’s Budget Coalition. It was a last ditch effort by groups like @MoveAsOnePH, @nagkaisa@SENTROLabor, Aral Pilipinas, SNPP and many other individuals who were deeply concerned about the way the 2021 Budget was structured.
From that exercise, I personally realized that we hold so much power and potential as citizens to make the budget work for us if we work together.
Dami ko natutunan sa People’s Budget Coalition🤩
Totally agree with @reyaika too that we ourselves need to be watchdogs.
2. The article mentioned that funds for vaccines are under “the department’s unprogrammed funds”.
That is inaccurate. The Unprogrammed Appropriations isn’t part of any department’s budget. DBM does not have UA nor does DOH.
If it’s not part of any department’s budget then what is it?
3. The UA is the portion of the total fiscal space (i.e. national budget) that serves as stand-by appropriations. They are part of what’s authorized by Congress
THREAD COA audit findings on the Procurement Service which received fund transfers from DOH
I'm skimming through the report tonight. Will share interesting findings as I go along. 1/x
First thing that caught my attention was the failure of the Procurement Service to submit copies of completed contracts/purchase orders to their resident auditor on time.
Out of 112 contracts/POs, PS submitted 80 of them 10-356 day beyond the prescribed period. 2/x
They have not submitted copies of 32 completed contracts/POs to the resident auditor. The 32 contracts amounts to a total of Php8.9B. Dunno what these contracts are.
COA has a circular requiring agencies to submit copies of perfected contracts/POs within 5 days 3/x
Last night on @ANCALERTS, I said there's a lot more to watch out for with respect to the 42.4B that was transferred by the DOH to the Procurement Service of DBM.
Who's going to respond and explain to the public about the delays in delivery of commodities, the slow-moving supplies in the depots bec other agencies don't even want to buy their high priced PPEs and face shields?
Former DBM Usec Lao no longer holds the post as head of PS. Did he resign? Was he transferred to another agency?
Hard to be pokerfaced when you’re asked about this:
"YOU MAKE A REPORT. DO NOT FLAG AND DO NOT PUBLISH IT BECAUSE IT WILL CONDEMN THE AGENCY OR THE PERSON THAT YOU ARE FLAGGING. THE FLAGGING IS SPELLED F-L-A-G-G-E-D. WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS F-L-O-G-G-I-N-G. DO NOT JUST FLAG.”
And this:
“WINARAK NYO KAMI E. WINARAK NYO ANG MGA KASAMA KO SA DOH. WALA PA RIN AKONG TULOG, ILANG GABI NA ITO. THIS IS UNFAIR, UNJUST.”
On a serious note, I was puzzled by Sec. Duque's reaction. It's as if DOH had no idea that the COA audit report would be coming out when in fact, COA conducts an exit conference with agencies before they publish the report. Is this a PR stunt?
My take on the implementation of the Mandanas ruling next fiscal year:
“LGUs need a huge capacity-building because they are going to receive funds and it’s supposed to benefit their constituencies…” bworldonline.com/lgu-projects-m…
…but how will their constituencies benefit directly from those higher fund allocations from the National Government if in the first place, they don’t know how to plan, budget, and they don’t have the technical capacity,”
World Bank Economist Kevin C. Chua pointed out the same concern in this article:
“Based on our analysis of LGU budget data, absorptive capacity is a concern, particularly for capital outlay projects such as infrastructure investments,”
1/x A thread on the issue of Bayanihan underspending:
First of all, Secretary Dominguez is being intellectual dishonest. Budget release data is the WRONG information to cite to either prove or disprove underspending. Budget release has nothing to do with actual spending.
2/x Budget release is solely the mandate of the DBM. Budget utilization is what we should expect from ALL government agencies that receive funds released by DBM.
So is there underspending of Bayanihan funds? The short and direct answer to that is YES.
3/x That is based on the government's own budget utilization reports on the Bayanihan funds. The latest one was released by the DBM about a month ago. That is what I analysed last week.