A network of civil-society organizations is urging lawmakers to scrutinize Malacañang’s move to redefine “savings” in the proposed P2.606-trillion budget next year as they expressed fears that some of these funds could be siphoned off to bankroll the candidacy of certain politicians in the 2016 polls.
The groups said that lawmakers “should not approve on third and final reading the 2015 General Appropriations Bill [GAB] which will legalize and perpetuate not only the practices of the Disbursement Acceleration Program but the pork-barrel system, itself,” said the Pera Ibalik Sa Tao (Piso) coalition at a news forum on Monday in Quezon City.
Former National Treasurer and Social Watch convener Leonor Briones said the proposed budget contains a bloated lump-sum allocation amounting to P140.5 billion under the special purpose funds that is prone to misuse since these are not subject to congressional scrutiny and auditing.
“Not only are lump-sum appropriations in the form of special purpose funds still present in this budget, but more significantly, the term ‘savings’ has been redefined such that it now subverts the collective will of the people,” Briones said in a news statement issued by the Piso coalition.
She said, “If this budget is passed with this redefinition of savings, then ‘savings’ can now be declared at any time of the year by the Executive for so-called justifiable causes.”
Briones said giving the Executive branch the free hand to “redefining savings” in the national budget violates local and international standards of accounting and auditing.
“With this new definition of savings, all the debates, hearings and consultations with the general public will be rendered moot and useless, because the Executive branch is now given a free hand in handling the people’s money,” she said.
The former government chief treasurer also said that lawmakers should not surrender their mandate for budget oversight function and power of appropriation.
“We call on the people to make our legislators accountable. Let us demand from our representatives to truly represent our interests,” said the Piso coalition.