Crooked budget process leads to crooked project bidding and is all run by crooked Filipino politicians

The Blue Ribbon Committee hearing yesterday on the anomalous flood control projects didn’t offer much in terms of entertainment value.

Erwin Tulfo insisting that the Department of Budget Management (DBM) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should have a say in how projects are allocated only exhibited his ignorance of the budget process.

The Senate and the House come up with their insertions into the National Expenditure Program (NEP) as submitted by the DBM and this is what’s “reconciled” at the bicameral conference committee. This is the first stage in the process of stealing public funds. The second step happens at the level of the DPWH when the projects are “bidded” out to contractors. We all know what happens there. Finally, the projects are “completed” and the “requirements” are met which enables the contractor to be paid in full for substandard and ghost projects.

Metro Manila flooding has gone from bad to worse because of the lack of integrated flood control plan and the focus on stealing public funds from the projects which are only palliative. If government is serious, no one should be spared in the probe. Complicit senators and congressmen must be made accountable along with the DPWH officials at the central office and regional levels.

The question is, will this actually happen, or will the investigation just be another moro-moro? The system has been gamed to the point that taxpayers don’t get their money’s worth as a matter of routine and the government panders to the poor who rely on handouts for their votes.

In the meantime, our budget deficit grows wider and we borrow more for our elected officials to steal.

No wonder everyone wants to be in government.

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Ramon Ortoll

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