By Pexcel John Bacon
A BUDGET watchdog called for an audit trail covering every amendment and insertion in the proposed national budget, saying citizens should be able to trace changes from the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to the final General Appropriations Act (GAA).
People’s Budget Coalition National Coordinator Mary Abigail B. Modales said in a Viber chat that transparency should continue throughout the legislative process, particularly when lawmakers begin changing allocations proposed in the NEP.
Every amendment and insertion should indicate who proposed it, what was changed, how much money was involved, the justification for the change, who accepted or adopted the amendment, and where the change ultimately appeared in the final GAA, she said.
The coalition also called for civil society organizations (CSOs) to be included in the Budget Amendments Review Sub-committee (BARSc).
Public scrutiny should not stop once committee hearings end, she said, particularly because the BARSc is the stage where changes to the budget are considered.
The coalition likewise called for greater transparency in the bicameral conference committee, where the House and Senate versions of the budget are reconciled.
Ms. Modales said the bicameral conference committee was livestreamed last year, which she described as a good step toward transparency. However, she said pauses and gaps in the livestream prevented the public from consistently following the proceedings.
“If there are discussions or caucuses that are not part of the public proceedings, the citizens are left with gaps in understanding how the final budget was shaped,” she said.
Live streaming alone would not be sufficient if the public could not determine how individual budget items changed during the process, she added.
The coalition’s call for an audit trail comes alongside its broader demand for greater project-level transparency, particularly for infrastructure allocations.
Ms. Modales said the People’s Budget Coalition had flagged P932.4 billion in hard pork, soft pork, shadow pork and local pork that need to be scrutinized during budget deliberations. Around P420 billion of this amount is in infrastructure allocations, she said.
She said the public should be able to see details of proposed infrastructure projects before allocations are approved, including the project profile, location, program of works, cost and implementation timeline, as well as geotagged photos where applicable and feasibility studies or master plan documents.
She cited the Department of Public Works and Highways’ Infrastructure Transparency Portal as a useful standard for making project information, procurement details, financial information and other records available to the public.
“Transparency should not mean simply uploading a 500-page PDF and saying that the information is publicly available,” Ms. Modales said. “The information has to be timely, accessible, and usable by the public.”
THREE-MINUTE REVIEWShe also raised concerns about the timing and extent of CSO participation in House budget hearings.
CSOs are sometimes invited to committee hearings at near midnight even when the hearing is scheduled early the following morning, leaving them little time to study documents, consult their sectors and prepare for engagement, she said.
During the People’s Budget Review on Sept. 8, CSOs were given only three minutes each to raise their concerns and recommendations, she said.
“3 minutes is not a review,” Ms. Modales said.
For the coalition, meaningful participation requires timely notice, access to usable budget documents, and enough time for citizens to scrutinize proposals and raise concerns before decisions are made.
University of Makati political science professor Ederson DT. Tapia said independent budget watchdogs provide an additional layer of scrutiny because the national budget has consequences that extend beyond government institutions.
“Budget watchdogs are important because the budget is too consequential to be scrutinized only from within government,” Mr. Tapia said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
While Congress has the constitutional power of the purse, he said independent groups can flag questionable changes, inconsistencies or spending priorities that may not receive wider public attention.
“The budget, after all, is not just an accounting document,” he said. “It is one of the clearest expressions of the government priorities.”
He said watchdog groups also bring some distance from the political process, allowing them to raise questions that may not be immediately addressed during legislative deliberations.
Watchdogs and CSOs can help make the technical budget process easier for ordinary citizens to understand, Mr. Tapia said.
“If watchdogs and civil society have limited access, we lose an important part of the accountability chain,” he said.
Participation, he said, should not be limited to invitations extended after major decisions have already been made.