Use govt savings for disaster relief efforts: group

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/10/05/09/use-govt-savings-disaster-relief-efforts-group

Use govt savings for disaster relief efforts: group

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/05/2009 5:02 PM

MANILA - Instead of the proposed P10-billion supplemental budget, the Arroyo government should just use part of its P140-billion "savings" last year for the rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts in the wake of tropical storm "Ondoy" and typhoon "Pepeng" which battered Luzon over the past 2 weeks, a budget advocacy group said on Monday.

In a statement, La Liga Policy Institute (LLPI), which serves as the secretariat of the Environment Cluster of the Alternative Budget Initiative, said that the quickest way to finance the government's disaster response is not via a supplemental budget but by simply using the savings incurred by the government since 2008.

These savings came from appropriations in the national budget that were impounded and not released by Malacañang, according to the group.

"The government should release [these] funds and re-align them to the calamity fund," said LLPI Managing Director Roland Cabigas.

Cabigas explained that such funds would also be enough to cover the government's disaster preparedness and risk reduction programs in relation to climate change.

However, before releasing the impounded funds, Cabigas said a mechanism for disbursement should be put in place first.

He said local government units (LGUs) should be able to prioritize their expenditures based on their actual needs, and that any release of funds should be audited.

"Greater accountability [of LGUs] will allow for [the funds'] more judicious use. In the past, releases from the calamity fund have been highly discretionary and were not subjected to any auditing. A parallel process that reviews releases from the calamity fund which are estimated to have reached as much as P6 billion for 2009 must be undertaken,” Cabigas said.

Both houses of Congress have proposed a supplemental budget that would help the country recover from the devastation caused by recent calamities.

But some lawmakers expressed concern that this would increase the budget deficit, which is estimated to reach, and even exceed, P250 billion this year.

as of 10/05/2009 5:08 PM