Gatchalian ‘red flags’ P455-billion in DPWH proposed budget

Senate President Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian said that they had flagged P455-billion worth of projects under the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) over detail deficiencies.

The senator expressed that some of the issues that were found were also observed in the budget deliberations from the previous years, stressing that a failure to address such concerns could leave the budget to corruption.

“In the DPWH budget, we saw P400 [billion] worth of red flags. These were redundant projects, had no proper coordinates that we told the DPWH were okay but there were still some issues,” Gatchalian said during a radio interview with DZBB Sunday morning.

“It’s a part of the budget that was not thoroughly checked that we need to fix because it can be abused,” he added.

In making his assessment, Gatchalian referenced findings from budget watchdogs like the People’s Budget Coalition which had found that there were some proposed projects that had coordinates that were situated in a different country.

He said that the matter could likely be due to typographical errors, but emphasized that such issues could not be accepted as every detail was important to pass the law which would serve as the blueprint for fiscal spending.

“It is not acceptable because when you submit a budget you should review it ten times, it should be ten times because this is a law. Every number, every letter is important,” he explained.

The senator likewise mentioned that their observations came from the budget that the agencies were allocated under the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Aside from allocations that were included in the NEP, the senator likewise vowed to probe the insertions of the House of Representatives since the lower chamber shifted large chunks of the budget in the version that they submitted.

Gatchalian pointed out that there were projects like farm-to-market roads which were earmarked under the Department of Agriculture that had to be properly studied by the DPWH to understand whether the projects were actually needed.

“What’s important is for these projects to undergo feasibility studies, have work programs, and have details. It can not be inserted without the knowledge of the DPWH similar to what happened in the past when the projects just came up and became a problem,” he said.

The Senate President said that they were in close coordination with officials from the public works agency in order to ensure that all amendments–whether from Congress or the Senate–were complete with details and supporting documents.

Gatchalian further maintained that the goal of ensuring that projects had complete information was to prevent a repeat of the multibillion peso flood control scam, which had allowed the DPWH’s District Engineering Offices to include projects that were deficient in nature.