Streamlining better than creating — Sotto

Senate President Vicente Sotto III believes Congress should prioritize rationalizing the operations of government offices than creating new departments by passing Rightsizing the National Government Act.

In a radio interview, Sotto said that some senators are double-minded in the proposal to create new government agencies except for the Department of Overseas Filipino Workers (DOFW).

“I’ll have to speak based on my opinion and my perspective. Because some of our colleagues don’t approve of it. What is possible for them (senators) is Department of OFW. The rest, they don’t want it. It seems a little impossible,” Sotto said.

He explained that the government is spending about 65 percent of its budget for personnel services and creating a department will add up to the expenses for employees’ salary which shows the need to pass the Rightsizing bill.

“Rightsizing, to simplify it, as an example let’s assume that Department of Finance has 2,000 employees, do they really need all of these 2,000 (employees)?” Sotto asked.

“Everything will undergo a rightsizing procedure which is included in the provisions of the bill we want to pass.”

He also proposed an early retirement program to lessen the expenses of the agencies pointing out that the big size of bureaucracy in the government will just add up to the cost that was intended for government services.