Alex Quiroz, chairperson of the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (Courtesy of Senate-PRIB)
MANILA – The new chief of the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG) on Friday said he would introduce "some dynamics" on safeguarding the budgetary support that the national government is providing.
Alex Quiroz said GCG will adopt measures that will eliminate unnecessary spending by government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).
Quiroz told the Senate Committee on Finance that the GCG is planning to establish satellite offices to directly monitor the efficiency of all GOCCs.
"We have been thinking to adapt a scheme, if not to eradicate, at least to reduce whatever dissipation that GOCCs have been committing. I am not attributing something but in short, paglulustay (unnecessary spending). We have to avoid it," Quiroz, a former Sandiganbayan associate justice, told the subcommittee chaired by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
Gatchalian raised the idea of reducing the budgetary support of the national government to GOCCs, which he said should be using their own profits in implementing programs.
"A lot of GOCCs don't come to Congress for their corporate operating budget. They just operate on their own. We can just monitor the subsidies. But the GCG has this broader view of those GOCCs," the lawmaker said.
Gatchalian said every GOCC should be conscious of efficiency so they do not have to request for subsidies from the national government.
Under the 2023 National Expenditure Program, the national government is proposing to allocate PHP180 billion as budgetary support for GOCCs to fund various government programs.
The top GOCCs with the largest budgetary support from the national government include the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, PHP80 billion; National Irrigation Administration, PHP38 billion; and National Housing Authority, PHP25 billion.
GCG is proposing to spend PHP305 million in 2023 but only PHP254.7 million was approved.
Created under Republic Act 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, the GCG is mandated to safeguard the current PHP10 trillion worth of assets of 118 GOCCs. (PNA)
