ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, a deputy minority leader in the House of Representatives, has called out the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for its budget submission as reflected in the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP) which is the basis for Congress to pass its budget.
In a statement, Congresswoman Castro pointed out that there are no details of regional distribution in the operations budget allocation for the agency's programs and projects.
"If we review the supposed detailed budget of the DPWH at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)... We can find that it is incomplete, like one of the subprograms under the Convergence Program, Construction/Improvement of Various Infrastructure in Support of National Security (Tatag ng Imprastraktura para sa Kapayapaan at Seguridad Program – or TIKAS) only P4.129 billion out of P6.239 billion is itemized?" Castro said, adding that this should be itemized to avoid corruption.
DBM Undersecretary Goddes Hope Libiran explained that "the DPWH submitted the details of the list of their projects on August 10, 2022, which is beyond the set deadline of Aug. 5, 2022 for the printing of budget documents, hence the submitted list of projects were not included in the printed NEP," Libiran said.
"The details of projects submitted by the DPWH were forwarded to the House of Representatives on August 19, 2022 as an addendum to the FY 2023 NEP. The same list of projects was uploaded on the DBM website," Libiran added.
The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) on its website updated its analysis of the DPWH's budget, particularly the portion on regional allocation and the discussions on the "lumped operations budget under NCR Central Office" and possible "overlaps of infrastructure projects under Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Alleviating Gaps (SIPAG) and Basic Infrastructure Program (BIP)" to reflect the data presented by the DPWH under a separate document in the DBM website entitled "Details of the DPWH Programs and Projects".
CPBRD still maintained that the allocation for DPWH “nationwide” projects will increase dramatically by 16,916.8 percent to P628.2 billion in 2023 from just P3.7 billion in 2022.
It added that one feature of the DPWH OSEC 2023 NEP is the absence of the regional distribution of the operations budget.
"The allocation for DPWH programs and projects is placed under the NCR Central Office. A separate document submitted to the DBM, however, details the programs and projects of the DPWH by region, by district engineering office, by project type and specifications," the CPBRD said in its updated analysis.
"This detailed presentation on the budgetary allocation of the DPWH expenditure program for 2023 should be pursued as it is aligned with the principles of transparency and accountability espoused under line-item budgeting. This will greatly help in facilitating proper monitoring and evaluation of public works projects along with the geotagging system of the DPWH."
Rep. France Castro and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano are on the right track in raising questions about the DPWH 2023 budget, as we believe infrastructure is the biggest item in the 2023 National Budget, not education.
DPWH Secretary Manny Bonoan, an honest and respected government official, is expected to ensure that the Department's budget is spent well and judiciously. Bonoan has been moving. That cannot be said of other top officials in the department who, as Congresswoman Castro said, is leaving out P 2.11 billion as unitemized projects under TIKAS from its overall budget of Php 6.239 billion.
How are you today, Undersecretary Cathy Cabral? What's the latest in fashion?