14 GOCCs get 37 percent of 2011 budget

MANILA, Philippines - More than P532 billion had been appropriated for 14 government-owned and controlled corporations for this year, or roughly 37 percent of the P1.441 trillion total for the period, Sen. Franklin Drilon said yesterday.

Drilon, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the bulk of the appropriations were not even subject to scrutiny by Congress and by the executive department.

“One-third of the expenditures would go to the GOCCs and yet they have gone on their merry way and have been their own Congress, their own BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), DOF (Department of Finance) and DBM (Department of Budget and Management),” Drilon said.

“Nobody monitors 37 percent of our national expenditure program. Thirty seven percent is appropriated without the people’s representative examining it,” Drilon said.

Among the GOCCs are the National Food Authority, National Reclamation Authority, National Electrification Administration, Local Water Utilities Administration, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System-Corporate Office, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Philippine National Railways, Philippine Ports Authority, Home Guaranty Corp., National Housing Authority, National Irrigation Administration, Light Rail Transit Authority, and the Philippine National Oil Corp. The DOF lumps together the National Power Corp., Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., and Transmission Corp.

Top executives of GOCCs and government financial institutions have drawn the ire of President Aquino and several senators for their outlandish perks and bonuses. Some of the GOCCs and GFIs with generous benefits for their officials have turned out to be in financial distress.

The DOF and the DBM have admitted that they have no control over the expenditures of the GOCCs and GFIs, which have their own special charters.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said they hope to come up and implement new reporting standards for the GOCCs in the next few months.

“We totally agree that we need to put this under control as part of good governance,” Purisima said. There are 158 GOCCs.

Drilon stressed that the GOCCs need to be closely scrutinized considering that their total assets as of 2008 already stood at P4.290 trillion.

“The problem is that these GOCCs have become republics and have become their own government. They have become independent republics without their expenditures being publicly scrutinized as in the case of the agencies of the national government,” Drilon said.

Drilon said the committee on finance is pushing for the passage of a Public Enterprise Corporate Governance Act to allow a review of GOCC finances.

Marvin Sy, Philippine Star