DBM: Budget reforms to eliminate abuses

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno wants to ensure that reforms in the creation of the country’s spending plan will endure even after President Duterte steps down from office.

In a speech before Department of Budget and Management (DBM) officials last Monday, Diokno said he would push for the passage of the Budget Reform Act “that will curb the abuses of the President in the exercise of his budget preparation and execution responsibilities.”

Diokno noted the past 15 years under two administrations have been “years of abuses of the President’s budget authority.”

“In three of [former] president [Gloria] Arroyo’s nine years in office, she operated with a reenacted budget for the entire year. [Former] president [Benigno Aquino III], on the other hand, will long be remembered for his unconstitutionally crafted Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP),” Diokno noted.

In his return as head of the DBM, having led the agency during the Estrada administration, Diokno said he would “complete the reforms that I have started during my truncated stint.”

He said the term “savings” would be clearly defined, consistent with previous Supreme Court decisions on the unconstitutionality of appropriating money from one agency to another.

Diokno also wanted greater transparency in the creation of the budget and in financial transactions involving the government. He said “some features of the Freedom of Information Act will be incorporated” in the budget reform bill.

“It is not enough that we upload [on the internet] tons of information on the budget. Citizens should be able to ask relevant information from DBM and we are obligated to respond accordingly.”