Loren Cites Need to Amend Graft, Procurement Laws

Senator Loren Legarda said yesterday that the successful prosecution of graft and corruption cases holds the key in plugging huge losses in taxpayers’ money, estimated to amount to P29.5-billion this year.

Legarda pointed out that the present Senate hearing on the scrapped national broadband network (NBN) project will help Congress in closing loopholes in the law regulating government procurement of goods and services.

“The NBN hearing will help us craft amendments to Republic Act 9184 to ensure that it is attune with the times,” said Legarda of the law otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act.

Legarda co-authored RA 9184 and is the chair of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee.

“Lawmakers must recognize the need to continually fine tune our laws since those who violate them are very creative and they find ways to go around them,” she stressed.

But Legarda said the anti-graft and corruption and all other relevant laws must be strictly enforced, and those who violated them promptly punished if the people are to fully benefit from their taxes.

She cited the estimate made by the Makati Business Club that the P29.5 billion in forecasted losses represent 20 percent of the government’s P147.662 billion capital outlay in the P1.227 trillion national budget.

The money is used in bribing government officials, said the group.

The MBC based its projection on the May 2000 study of the World Bank and a 2004 survey of the Social Weather Station (SWS) that said roughly 20 percent of the government’s annual budget get to line the pockets of unscrupulous individuals.

“That’s P29 billion down the drain. Such a waste since the money is badly needed by Filipinos for livelihood projects, health and educational support and for infrastructure,” Legarda said.

The World Bank study titled “Combating corruption in the Philippines” said that P24.1 billion out of the P120.6 billion allocated for capital spending in 1998 was lost to graft and corruption.

The 2000-2004 SWS Survey of Enterprises on Corruption reported the perception that 21.8 percent of government project funds were allotted as bribes, compared to 13.1 percent for private sector contracts.

“The Senate hearings had been criticized as pointless but that’s not true as lawmakers have to get feedbacks, have to know how our laws are being subverted so we can pass remedial measures,” Legarda said.

“For example, my committee has been holding meetings on, among other things, the effects of the sharp rise of the value of the peso against the US dollar on the earnings of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and exporters. These hearings are necessary and very valuable.” -30-

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