|
Friday, 29 August 2008 |
|
The House of Representatives will conduct a thorough performance audit of every executive department before it can approve their budget under the proposed P1.415 trillion 2009 national appropriation submitted by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya on Wednesday.
In a press statement, Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr. said the review is aimed at finding out if each department has “adequately complied” with its work programs and how it used its appropriations under the 2008 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Even the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will not get a budget cut as long as it has performed satisfactorily and used its 2008 outlay based on its work programs, according to Nograles, who is now engaged in a word war with Commissioner Ernesto Suansing of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), an agency directly under DOTC.
“If in case we determine during the course of our audit that a department did not perform as expected, the House will either recommend a budget cut or demand a policy change to ensure adequate compliance on the executive’s work programs next year,” he said.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Tuesday, 19 August 2008 |
|
Official corruption remains highest in Metro Manila, as it has for almost 30 years now, among all the regions of the country, according to the Sandiganbayan.
Figures released by the anti-graft court’s Judicial Records Division showed the capital region accounted for 23 percent (6,770 suits) of the 29,231 cases filed in the Sandiganbayan between February 1979 and May 2008.
Central Visayas (Region VII) and Southern Tagalog (Region IV) shared an equally large portion of the case pie with 11.32 percent (3,310 cases) and 10 percent (2,932 cases), respectively, the records showed.
Central Visayas comprises four provinces—Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor. Southern Tagalog provinces include the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro and Romblon.
“The seat of government and the bulk of public funds are here in Metro Manila so it is not [unimaginable] that it would register the highest number of graft cases with the Sandiganbayan,” Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the phone on Monday.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Monday, 18 August 2008 |
|
MORE Filipinos think they can help reduce corruption, according to a series of surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations in September and December last year but released by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) only yesterday.
The surveys, commissioned by the PAGC for use in formulating strategies to elicit active public support for its graft-prevention campaign, showed a three- percent increase in the number of people who considered themselves capable of doing something against corruption.
The three-percent increase was the difference between the September and December surveys among people who disagreed to the test statement “A person like me cannot do anything to reduce corruption in the government.”
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
|
Rep. Villanueva delivered a question of privilege on the escalating tiff between the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) on the latter’s refusal to pay taxes.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege, both personal to me and affects this institution as a collective. The issues and questions I am to raise directly affects the duties, powers, integrity and reputation of this House. I stand to question the continuing attempts by the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation to circumvent the statutes passed by this House and even infringe on Congress’ power of the purse.
Over these recent months, I believe that all of us have read or heard the escalating tiff between the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue on one side and PAGCOR on the other side.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
