Poli Ticks Following · Wednesday GENEROUS NOY TO DOLE OUT P60 BILLION The budget proposal for next year of P2.2 trillion will have P70 billion allocation for the Department of Social Works and Development (DSWD) with funding for Noynoy’s flagship conditional-cash transfer (CCT) program expected to top P60 billion since the bulk the yearly DSWD budget goes to the cash dole out scheme. The amount would add another P20 billion to the program, the funding for which seems to grow faster than the efforts in government to check if the scheme is achieving its goals. For this year, the program has all of P44 billion supposedly to cover 3 million of the poorest Filipino families. The funding for the program has grown from the P12 billion that it got during the term of Gloria Arroyo to P44 billion last year and the Department of Budget and Management had committed that the funding for the CCT will not stop growing until Noynoy steps down in 2016. The CCT scheme has become the main anti-poverty program of the administration of Noynoy. The target for next year would be five million families, which would be a herculean task considering the monitoring of beneficiary families to the conditions attached to receiving the monthly government stipend. The DSWD needs to explain how it intends to monitor the compliance of 5 million families or an estimated 20 million Filipinos on the conservative assumption of four individuals per family to conditions which relate to maternal health and children’s schooling in the program The Senate minority had notified its aim of putting the budget, particularly the CCT allocations, under the wringer primarily because of cases during the May 13 elections when the program was used as a campaign paraphernalia by administration candidates. Acting Senate President Jinggoy Estrada mentioned about the program being used during the campaigns in Manila and there were cases in Camarines Sur, the documents for which were sent to the Tribune, showing registration forms for the CCT that carried prominently Noynoy’s photo along with the logo of the Liberal Party. Some of the documents were signed in advance by the officer-in-charge of the CCT program in the region, where actor Aga Muhlach who carried the flag for the LP lost to William Fuentebella. Thus, it may be true that no CCT money was distributed during the elections but instead forms to be a recipient of the monthly government doleouts were used by the administration as election handouts. A scrutiny of the program was under the yearly scrutiny of the Commission on Audit (CoA) which up to the time the CCT scheme was being implemented by Dinky Soliman, the conditions for choosing the beneficiaries of the program were not being adhered to. Previous CoA audits stated that several of the beneficiaries were recommendees of barangay officials and are either the official’s close friends or relatives defeating the purpose of the program to reach the poorest families. The DSWD has yet to issue an update on the CoA findings that the program was not being properly monitored thus political interests had seeped into the distribution of the huge funds allocated to the agency. Consider P60 billion for a single program in government and the ease with which tens of billions of pesos in funds can be juggled from the budget without anyone noticing it. Even a one percent slippage for the CCT scheme would mean P600 million that can be used for any purpose, particularly during an election period. The expensive program should be placed under a microscope and every peso spent for it accounted for. tribune.net.ph/index.php/commentary/editorial/item/16650-generous-noy-to-dole-out-p60b
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 06:55:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015