2/3 of state-run firms ‘viable,’ says GCG

Two-thirds of the country’s 120 state-run firms remain “financially viable” even as Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Monday sought to abolish 23 inactive government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

During the Senate finance committee hearing on the 2020 budget proposal of the Governance Commission for Government Owned or Controlled Corporations, GCG Chair Samuel G. Dagpin Jr. said that from as many as 158 GOCCs in the past, the number dwindled to 120 at present as redundant companies had been abolished, merged, privatized or streamlined.

Of the 120 remaining GOCCs, 40 had already been reviewed, while 80 were deemed “still financially viable to operate,” Dagpin said.

According to Dagpin, the GCG evaluates all GOCCs’ performance every year.

When Gatchalian asked if there was still reason for all these GOCCs to exist, Dagpin replied: “As of this time, yes.”

But Dagpin said there were 23 inactive or non-operational GOCCs that were yet to be abolished and “can be reactivated” when approved by the GCG.

Dagpin explained that these inactive firms were mostly subsidiaries of other bigger state corporations, which “can be used again by GOCCs as a vehicle for them to function other mandates.”

The GCG chair said there was no money involved in keeping these inactive GOCCs —“they have no officials, employees and transactions—they’re just paper corporations,” he said.

Gatchalian nonetheless urged the GCG to consider deactivating these non-operating GOCCs. —BEN O. DE VERA