‘Follow every peso,’ Marcos urges public

Filipinos can trace government money from budget allocation to procurement and project completion under a new government-wide transparency system ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Executive Order 126 institutionalizes the Centralized Open Monitoring Platform for Appropriations and Spending Statistics, or COMPASS, as the government’s unified public platform for budget and expenditure information.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said Thursday that the system would go beyond showing how much money agencies receive.

“It will not only show budget allocations, but also the release of funds, procurement, implementation and completion of projects and the performance of government programs,” Castro said in Filipino.

Information must be accurate

The order requires national government agencies, government-owned or -controlled corporations and other covered entities to submit and update accurate information regularly.

Failure to comply may become grounds for administrative or disciplinary sanctions under existing laws and regulations.

The Department of Budget and Management said COMPASS is intended to allow citizens and oversight institutions to “follow every peso” across the entire national budget cycle.

It will connect information from existing financial and procurement systems, including PhilGEPS, the Budget and Treasury Management System, the Integrated Financial Management Information System, and the government’s project monitoring platforms.