MALACAÑANG remains confident Congress would speed up the passage of the proposed 2012 national budget but urged lawmakers with concerns about the implementation of the conditional cash-transfer (CCT) program to keep intact the funds allotted for it.

“We are confident that this will be passed despite the objections of some in the minority,” Secretary Ramon Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office said in a news briefing.

“We have the majority in both houses of Congress and after they ask legitimate questions about the budget as is their job, then we’re confident it will be passed on time,” he added.

To prevent corruption and “various political intervention,” the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it has made the lump-sum fund of various government agencies in the proposed 2012 budget more “transparent,” according to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad. He said the P150.5-billion lump-sum fund in the proposed P1.816-trillion budget was broken down into specific projects for regional and subregional distribution.

The scheme will also allow Congress and the people to examine where public funds are intended to be spent, Abad said.

“Lump-sum budgeting delays project execution. This is because before the fund is released, agencies with lump-sum funds need to present to the DBM the list of projects to be funded under it. By the time their agencies have a ready list, it’s usually the middle of the year already,” Abad said.

Out of the P150.5-billion fund, P46.8 billion is earmarked for the Department of Education, P46.4 for the DSWD, P36.7 billion for the Department of Agriculture, P11.1 billion for the Department of Agrarian Reform, P6.8 billion for the Department of Health, and P2.4 billion from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Lump-sum budget items are not allocated into specific programs or activities of a particular agency. Such old scheme, according to the new administration, encouraged political intervention since it has no clear and firm priorities and allows anomalies in the use of these public funds.

For instance, funding for the construction of a school building only has one line item during the previous budget. For the 2012 budget, however, the Aquino administration has broken it down to the specific projects and down to the regions.