Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday called for the abolition of the Philippine International Trade Corporation (PITC) and the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS) to prevent government agencies from developing a bad habit of parking funds within these two agencies.
Gatchalian said this should be one of the remedies that must be considered to clear government agencies that try to dodge procurement laws and budget rules from any corruption.
“Isa sa mga bagay na nakita kong dapat tignan at tingin ko nga ay buwagin na itong pagpasok po ng mga pondo sa PITC at sa DBM-PS, yung procurement service (One of the things that I see we should do is to abolish this practice of lodging funds in the PITC and DBM-PS),” Gatchalian said in the Laging Handa briefing.
Gatchalian noted that when the funds go to the PITC and DBM-PS, the funds are not utilized, leading to waste of public money.
“Ang nangyari kasi nagiging masamang habit, nagiging masamang ugali na ng mga ahensya kapag hindi nila nagastos ang pondo, ipinapasa dito sa PITC at sa DBM-PS para hindi sila masabihan na low utilization o hindi ginagamit ang pondo (What happens is it becomes a bad habit of the agencies that when they fail to use the funds, they pass it to the PITC and DBM-PS to avoid being called out for low utilization),” he lamented.
“So ang ginagawa nila para sa libro nila malinis at nagagamit ang pondo, ipinapasa nila sa ibang ahensya (So what they do is they make it appear they are clean and they are able to use th funds, they pass it to these two agencies),” he pointed out.
Aside from the Department of Health (DOH) which the Commission on Audit (COA) has earlier flagged for mishandling its P64.7-billion COVID-19 worth of funds, Gatchalian cited the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) as another example.
He noted that the BFP itself have funds parked at the PITC since 2015 and until now remain unutilized.
“Sayang marami tayong munisipalidad na walang fire truck, fire station, yung pera nakatengga lang sa PITC (We have so many municipalities that have no fire truck, fire station and yet the money is just there languishing at the PITC),” he said.
“So itong dalawang ahensyang ito tingin ko dapat mabuwag na dahil nagiging bad habit na ipinapasa po ang pondo sa kanilang tanggapan (So these two agencies, I believe, should be abolished because it has become a bad habit of relegating these funds to their offices),” he stressed.