Budget transparency limited to few people

ACCESS to budget information in the country is transparent but not enough to trickle down to the common Juan dela Cruz, an international study revealed. The International Budget Partnership (IBP) in its Open Budget Survey 2010 gave the Philippines a score of 55 out of 100, indicating that the government provides the public with “only some information” regarding its budget and financial activities.

Besides making the cut, the Philippines ranked first among its Southeast Asian neighbors. Among others, Indonesia only scored 51, Thailand with 42 and Malaysia with 39. Singapore was not included in the survey.

Although the country passed, the survey showed that among the eight documents from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Philippines mostly got “low level of information grade.” The documents were scored from A as the highest to E as the lowest.

The Enacted Budget and In-Year Reports aced with “A” since they are published. The Executive’s Budget Proposal scored with “B.” The Audit Report was given with a “C.” The Year-End Report got a “D,” while the Pre-Budget Statement, the Citizens Budget and Mid-Year Review fell flat with “E,” since they were not published.

These documents were used as the barometers for information in public budget documents.

With only tepid information, “this makes it challenging for citizens to hold the government accountable for its management of the public’s money,” the IBP country report read.

In a press conference, Karol Ilagan, research director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Philippine partner of IBP in the survey, said that although the grade was already an improvement from 2008’s 48 score, the country “failed to meet basic standards of transparency and accountability with the national budgets.”

Ilagan said that even if the country has an acceptable transparency mark, the low scores in the eight documents would show that “if for the most basic budget documents the country cannot be transparent, what more with more detailed documents.”

Access to reports
Ilagan said that access to budget reports and documents are necessary because it empowers citizens to participate in the decision-making process of the government and it holds accountable public officials.

The transparency survey showed that budget oversight by the Commission on Audit is only “moderate” because it has no sufficient resources to exercise its auditing mandate.

The Audit agency does not also issue timely audit reports on the final expenditures of national departments and it does not follow-up steps taken by the agencies to address audit recommendations, the survey showed.

In a statement read by Gil Mon-talbo, director of DBM’s Corporate Planning and Reforms Service, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said that the department supports the drive of budget transparency, a cornerstone policy of the Aquino administration.

“This new government understands very well that prudent and responsible public expenditure management can be best achieved if transparency and accountability are hallmarked in the budget process,” Abad said.

The 2010 survey assessed documents available in 2009 belonging to the Arroyo administration.

Former National Treasurer Leonor Briones said that “citizens have never been a part of budget consultations” in a historical basis.

Although alternative budget recommendations from civil service organizations are welcomed during the legislative hearings at the House of Representatives, a law has yet to be passed which will formally recognize the role of non-government sectors in budget legislation, Briones said.

She said that as a means of advocating transparency, the people “go beyond the open budget survey.”

“It [survey] does not capture the political negotiations in Congress and in the Bicameral Committee, which the public is not aware of. Much of budget decisions are not in the document,” Briones said.

She added that before enacting the government’s budget into law, negotiations are done, which “are full of choices, which makes preparation of budget and passing it into law a political process.”

“If we care about democracy, we should ask about the budgets,” Briones said. –JOHN CONSTANTINE G. CORDON REPORTER, Manila Times