DBM chief: Gov’t ‘rightsizing’ may ‘upsize’ public education, health sectors

DBM logo

MANILA, Philippines — The planned bureaucratic “rightsizing” would not necessarily slash the government’s workforce, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Thursday, as personnel in the Marcos Jr. administration’s priority sectors like education and public health services may be “upsized.”

In a radio interview, Pangandaman said that “compared to downsizing, which automatically means reduction in the number of personnel, rightsizing may also mean strengthening the requirements of an agency.”

To strengthen or give a bigger mandate to an important government office, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) may recommend to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to approve a larger budget as well as manpower, Pangandaman said.

While the DBM has yet to determine which agencies needed a budgetary and staffing boost, Pangandaman said their initial studies had shown that the public education and medical sectors may be upsized.

As such, these priority sectors may absorb jobs to be shed from agencies to be downsized, Pangandaman said, adding that those government employees who shall be displaced by the rightsizing plan would be retooled and retrained for their new employment.

Pangandaman said a proposed bill, to be pitched to Congress before President Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 24, will “give the President the power to study the bureaucracy, and review the mandate and functions of existing agencies.”

Once the bill is passed into law, the executive branch would set into motion a timeline to scrap, merge, or create government offices, Pangandaman said. The economic team’s proposal was to give the President authority during a one-year period to rightsize the government; abolishing government agencies currently mandates Congressional approval, hence takes a long time.

“The President has already instructed the Cabinet to look into their respective departments for possible rightsizing, and also for positions which have been rendered redundant by digitalization efforts,” Pangandaman said, referring to Mr. Marcos Jr.’s orders during their first Cabinet meeting last July 5.

The rightsizing push would affect a total of two million positions in 187 government agencies and state-run corporations. Based on the DBM’s estimates, reducing the bureaucracy by 5 percent would yield P14.8 billion in savings for government coffers.

“The said savings can be allocated to other priority programs and projects of the government like health care, agriculture support, and infrastructure,” Pangandaman said.

RELATED STORY:

Shedding 5% of redundant staff can save P14.8B – DBM

JPV