Civil society groups assess state programs against targets

CIVIL SOCIETY organizations (CSOs) yesterday presented findings of their monitoring of state programs to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), as part of preparations for the full participation of such groups in the crafting of the 2013 budget.

“We want to empower CSOs to be more effective partners of development by keeping watch of how government uses its power of the purse,” Nieves L. Osorio, lead trustee of the International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance (INCITEGov), said during a budget partnership forum organized by the group yesterday at the Philippine Social Science Center, Quezon City.

“Budget monitoring is a proven effective citizen participation tool, and encouraging advocates to produce quality evaluations of government agencies…enhance the government’s vision of effectual participatory governance.”

The DBM had said it would allow CSOs to participate in the 2013 budget preparation of all key government agencies. As a test run, it allowed select CSOs to participate in the preparation of the 2012 budgets of six departments, namely: the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Agrarian Reform, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, a task that includes assessing the performance of programs entrusted to them.

Representatives of participating CSOs shared their experiences yesterday with other groups in order to prime them to help draw up the 2013 national budget.

The Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD) monitored the Water Fund of the Department of Health, which aims to construct water supply systems to provide potable water for poor communities. IPD Project Coordinator Nikkin L. Beronilla reported that from 2005 to 2008, the Water Fund benefited 302 towns, out of the targeted 432. Moreover, another 212 towns got disbursements, despite not being on the list of intended beneficiaries, Mr. Beronilla added.

IPD also looked into the distribution of health cards to indigents and found that there were errors in the selection of qualified households.

The National Household Targeting System, also employed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development for its conditional cash transfer program, excluded 24% of the total poor from its mapping, while 13% of the total so-called “non-poor” were included, Mr. Beronilla said.

Meanwhile, the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) set up a budget partnership agreement with the Department of Agriculture (DA).

CODE-NGO found that the local Agricultural and Fishery Councils (AFCs), the DA’s body for citizen participation in policy and budget formulation, were mostly comprised of “better-off farmers and agribusinesses,” Project Coordinator Patrick O. Lim said.

Moreover, many members of regional AFCs have been in place for the last 10 to 15 years, Mr. Lim noted, citing a need for new blood to provide diverse perspectives to policy making.

“Based on the experience of our members, AFCs do not discuss substantial policy and budget issues and act primarily as a social club,” Mr. Lim added.

The Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA) tied up with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). Consultations between the CSO and government were able to “break the barriers through constructive engagement,” PhilDHRRA Research Associate Jennifer S. Javier said in her report during the same forum.

She added that the DAR budget was “demystified” because members of her group were able to appreciate the financial constraints the department faces.

The various CSOs also cited common problems they observed in their budget monitoring.

For one, government offices and civil groups tended to be “adversarial” at the beginning.

Moreover, there were only some CSOs that had the training and the resources to sustain budget monitoring over a long period.

INCITEGov’s Ms. Osorio said her group would continue to hold capacity-building activities to train CSOs for their task of budget monitoring. “The DBM is getting more and more CSOs involved with budget participation, so we need to train more people,” Ms. Osorio said.

The cost of budget monitoring may also be a big problem for other groups due to their nature as nonprofit organizations, Ms. Osorio admitted.

But she said that there would always be willing bilateral and multilateral donors such as the United States Agency for International Development that fund campaigns for good governance.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad encouraged CSOs to participate in the budget process, in order to make it more transparent and accountable.

“CSOs are important for community mobilization in the country. Their vigilance will make sure the reforms we are implementing will be irreversible,” he said in his keynote address during the forum.