When Budget & Management Secretary Butch Abad submitted the proposed 2015 national budget amounting to P2.606 trillion spending plan, it was time for Congress to scrutinize the allocation and use of funds for the different line agencies.
If anyone has any inquiries or objections to the budget, the government website is available for feedback. This is also the time to engage your Congressman about your concerns, for after all, this is why they were elected as representatives — to be able to translate the concerns of the people into the national budget.
The government is giving the highest allocation of 364.96 trillion to Education led by Education Secretary Arman Luistro.
This is long overdue, as the deficiencies in the formation of the nation’s youth have direct links to the ability of the youth to be employed, and their capacity to act as responsible citizens.
It is not enough that the youth will be able “to read and write,” they should possess knowledge and comprehension of basic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic), but more importantly, computer literacy, entrepreneurship, capacity to innovate or to employ themselves. This requires adequate funding, competent mentors, and willing learners.
The proposed budget is anchored on the premise that “no one, especially the poor and vulnerable will be left behind”.
The six volume budget adopts the “outcome base performance informed budgeting”. As explained by Cabinet Sec. Rene Almendras, the PIB is a scheme that uses performance information to assist in deciding where the funds will go.
It includes the purpose of the funds required, the outposts that would be produced or the services that would be rendered, the outcomes that would be achieved by the services, the cost of the programs, and the activities proposed to achieve the objectives.
This is in line with the Aquino administration’s goal to strengthen the link between planning and budgeting, to simplify the presentation of the budget. It will facilitate the public’s better understanding of how the funds will be spent.
Eighty percent of the budget will be funded by taxes and revenues from government owned and controlled corporations.
The rest of the 20 percent will be sourced mostly from domestic sources and from foreign borrowings, with the assumption of a seven to eight percent growth in the gross domestic product next year.
To make sure that the revenue prediction will be met, expect BIR to double its efforts to generate more collections, Customs to clamp down on smugglers, and more persistent efforts on the part of government agencies to be efficient and effective in their spending.
If you want government to work for you, be sure to “put your money where your mouth is!”
Pay your correct taxes, and monitor how it is spent — this is part of responsible citizenship. Be part of the solution. Try to avoid being part of a government problem.
The late US President John F. Kennedy said: “Ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you!”.
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Author’s email: whelmayap@yahoo.com
