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IT may
do well for the government to audit all public debts and
not stop with just the suspension of official
development assistance (ODA) funding for 11 projects
because many more may be qualified for the ax, said an
antidebt advocate Wednesday.
The
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said the
administration should do the wholesale audit even if
this leads to the suspension of more projects and the
filing of charges against responsible officials in order
to prove its claim of transparency and accountability.
The FDC
also asked the Senate and the House of Representatives
to immediately pass Joint Resolution 04 calling for a
congressional audit of all public-sector debt and all
contingent liabilities.
This
would serve not only to oversee the executive’s own
investigations but would assert the congressional power
of the purse.
As if in
response, it was soon reported that Sen. Francis “Chiz”
Escudero demanded that Malacañang submit all ODA
contracts and agreements to the oversight committee for
ODA that he chairs.
He also
said that existing, proposed, and potential “project
loans and program loans” for future fiscal years should
be submitted ahead to Congress together with the
proposed national budget for proper and unhurried
appreciation.
“The
practice now is to submit the budget with program loans
and project loans proceeds already embedded in it. What
we want are prospective ones, not the ones that are
already signed, sealed and delivered,” he said.
Earlier,
the government announced it was suspending ODA funding
for the cyber-education project, the phase one of the
Southrail project, and nine others suspected to have
been stained with anomalies.
The FDC
said the suspension was only logical in view of a
declaration by Congress that “no amount shall be used
for the payment of interest payments on debts which are
challenged as fraudulent, wasteful and/or useless.”
According to the FDC, some of these loans include the
Austria Medical Waste Project, Small Coconut Farms
Development Project and the Telepono sa Barangay
Project.
The FDC
faulted Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye for trying to
mitigate the situation by saying the suspension was
decided upon because there is enough local financing to
cover the projects.
“Evasive
to say the least. His statement conveniently ignores the
fact that the suspension precedes the controversies
which surrounded the ZTE-NBN deal, also another
loan-financed project,” said FDC secretary-general Mario
Tanchuling.
Tanchuling said the absence of a corresponding
investigation prior to the suspension still raises a
question. “For one, the administration may have all
along been prepared to suspend a handful of projects as
token palliative to dilute the call for a more
comprehensive systemic change following the Senate
investigation on the ZTE-NBN deal.”
“Also,
FDC wonders if the recent suspension is in anyway
related to Malacañang’s silence on the results of
Administrative Order 210, which was primarily meant to
investigate $232-million World Bank ODA for road
projects,” added Tanchuling.
Escudero
stressed that under the law, the congressional oversight
committee on ODA is tasked to review all ODA contracts
and agreements, in addition to the Neda and the
Commission on Audit.
“If
Malacañang, through the Procurement Transparency Group [PTG]
that it created, had submitted these ODA contracts to
the business sector for scrutiny and review, it is but
proper that my committee be also given copies as this is
readily mandated by Republic Act 8182, as amended by RA
8555,” Escudero said.
Section
8 of RA 8182, as amended by RA 8555, says that “pursuant
to its constitutional duties, the Executive Department,
particularly Neda, the Commission on Audit and Congress
shall discharge oversight functions, to wit: (c) there
shall be a Congressional Oversight Committee composed of
the Chairmen of the Committee on Ways and Means of both
the Senate and the House representing the majority and
two members each from the Senate and the House
representing the minority to be designated by the
leaders of the majority and minority in the respective
chambers.”
He said
that more than the private sector and the PTG, it is the
oversight committee on ODA that has the power to look
into these contracts entered into by the government
including the now controversial national broadband
network project.
“For
greater transparency in all government transactions,
Malacañang should heed this call, otherwise, this PTG is
just another moro-moro in the fashion of the Ombudsman’s
initiative to investigate the ZTE scandal.”
Senator
Escudero had been calling for the convening of the
congressional oversight committee for overseas
development assistance (ODA) to prevent and avoid wanton
approval of loans contracted with neither congressional
consultation nor consent. “Congress has been reduced to
a rubber stamp, with no choice but to provide budgetary
cover, because it cannot rescind what have become
sovereign guarantees,” he said.
“I have
been calling for the convening of the oversight
committee, together with our counterpart in the Lower
House, after Neda botched a couple of ODA projects,
particularly in this NBN-ZTE deal and the Commission on
Audit has yet to present its review of each ODA contract
entered into by government as required by law,” Escudero
said.
If this
scheme will be followed then future loans will have the
effect of getting “the imprimatur” of Congress and
wanton loans like the ZTE and Cyber Ed projects could be
already avoided, he said. |
