May tawaran? Ping bares reason for late submission of DPWH’s 2021 budget

Haggling may have been the reason behind the Department of Public Works and Highways’ late submission of its budget for 2021, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Friday.

In a television interview, Lacson said his source from the Department of Budget and Management indicated this could be the reason for the DPWH’s late submission.

“My inside info, my source from DBM told us that ang reason for the hasty submission of erroneous appropriations for the 2021 NEP, kasi late nag-submit ang DPWH. For what reason I don’t know. We can only suspect that there was a lot of haggling that went on between DPWH and some legislators, kaya nagkahuli-huli,” he said in an interview on ANC.

“That’s what we were told (haggling). There’s no way of validating it. But why in the world, kasi Build, Build, Build doon naka-anchor ang RRR (Reset, Rebound, Recover). But BBB, e bakit ang DPWH would be late in the submission of their proposed budget?” he added.

Earlier, Lacson bared 2,933 items in the DPWH’s 2021 budget were re-appropriations, or had been appropriated with funds in the 2020 budget. These were worth P73.5 billion.

He also noted P396 billion in lump sums, which if combined with the re-appropriations would amount to P469 billion.

Lacson said at least a part of the P469 billion should be realigned or reassigned to other agencies that would need more appropriations. “And P469B is too large an amount, that’s more than 50% of the budget of DPWH for infrastructure,” he noted.

He said such agencies that need funds include the Department of Science and Technology’s research and development institutions.

“Of course big ticket huwag natin pabayaan kasi yan ang essence ng BBB. But ang preventive maintenance of secondary roads, farm to market roads and the like, should not be considered anymore. Ito ang source ng corruption like dredging, flood control. Alam naman natin pag dredging isang ulan lang, di ma-audit ng COA yan kasi sasabihin ng contractor umulan, gumuho uli, silted ang ilog. So much has been wasted to corruption insofar as the GAA is concerned,” he said.

The post May tawaran? Ping bares reason for late submission of DPWH's 2021 budget first appeared on Latest Philippine politics news today.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)