Budoet-makinq Drocess

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urg6ntly needi ieform
the budget are justified, correctly
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priced and adequately documented.

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Scrutiny ofthe annual budget bill
is clearly the legislative's most im-
t portant function, for the hopes and
,dE ao
!L'
lr- aspirations of the nation's citizens
.< THE making of the annual national for a life and embodied in the pages

sg o budget-Ihe GAu{ (General Ap- of the proposed bill. Legislators are

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propriation Act) is one of the most at their best when, through hearings
importantactivitiesofademocratic and other information-gathering
society, and the GAA is one the means, they establish the sound-
two documents that are of greatest ness, legality cost-effectiveness of
significance for the developmqnt proposed expenditures.
of a capitalist economy. Yet today
the budget-making process and the CSHffi
people responsible for its making
are under severe attack.
The attack is premised on rou. ll ft has become
widely held beliefs, to wit (l) that unbeAfAble. tt
legislations interfere in the mak- ll
ing of the national budget, (2) that
unworlhy economic and social
projects get included in the NEp SffiSffi
(National Expenditures Program),
(3) that many budget items are
overpriced on inadequately docu- The expenditures presented to
mented, and (4) that insertions into them for scrutiny are the only ex-
the budget are made gfter the pro- penditures that are legitimately
posed GAA has been approved by covered by congressional determi-
the House of Representatives, from native proceedings: Subsequent ad-
which money bills must emanate. ditions are not part of the deal.
Because these beliefs have suffr- In the distant past the objects of
cient basis, the process ofpreparing public opprobrium were the CDF
the GAA needs thorough reform. To (Countrywide Development Fund)
that end, a bill to reform to budget- pork barrel allotments to the mem-
making process needs to be filed, bers of Congress. In the more re-
assuming that no move in that di- cent past public disdain has been
rection has yet been mad€. ; directed at the pork barrel pal,rnents
Legislators 6re legitimate par- associated with the disgraced Ja-
ticipants in the budget-making pro- net Lim Napoles, i.e., the PDAF
cess. They have a right-nay, the (Priority Development Assistance
responsibility-to pursue the needs Fund) pork slabs. Today the object
of their constituents before the of public anger are the insertions
Executive branch of government, made into the newly approved 2019
more specifically NEDA (National GAA.
Economic and Development Au- Criticism and adverse com-
thority) and DBM ( Department of mentaries of this country's budget-
Budget and Management). making process, no matter how
They have the right, and they trenchant and no matter how wide-
need, to point out to the NEDAplan- spread, no longer suffice. The bad
ners and to the DBM managers the practices associated \ryith the pro-
projects that are of greatest valu€ to cess are no longer bearable. Things
their constituents. But this involve- have gotten out.of control.
ment in the making ofthe national Total reform ofthe national-bud-
budget should tnke place while the geting process is the order of the
document is being drafted and prior day. The Executive Department-
to its presentation to the Legisla- NEDA and DBM-and Congress
ture. Once the budget is presented need to get together as soon as pos- i\
to Congress, the task oflegislations sible after the electoral exercise, FAgl
is limited to ensuring that the ex- which should result in the drafting
penditure items items embodied in ofbudget reform legislation.