Curbing Graft and Corruption
Curbing Graft and Corruption
A DBM Job That Goes Beyond Budgeting Itself
By: John E. Lansangan
Department of Budget and Management
With the financial crisis slowly creeping out itself from the Asian economic landscape, many countries in Asia have realized how crucial the policy and structural reforms that they laid down in the past two decades were. Many weaknesses were exposed ranging from governmental to economic, financial to political, and social to moral. One area that has been identified to critically play a major role in the attempt to redeem the battered economies of Asia is graft and corruption. In fact, analysts and observers outside of Asia such as the United Nations (UN) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) affirmed that eliminating graft and corruption is one of the issues that Asian countries should address if they really mean business.
The Philippines, through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), has already made significant strides in eradicating graft and corruption. Considered to be much less affected by the turmoil due to strong economic foundations, the country has further instituted reform measures in the government sector to prevent another beating from the crisis.
Since the start of the Estrada administration, the DBM, the country’s premiere agency tasked to formulate and execute fiscal policies, has implemented various fiscal reforms to insure the prudent and sound utilization of people’s money. Under the leadership of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, there are five fiscal reforms that went beyond the financial aspect of its job, discouraging irregularities and making government fund releases more transparent.
Cleaning the books
Foremost of these five reform measures is the resolve of the government to settle all its accounts payables (APs) from its contractors and suppliers and posting it to the Internet. Government creditors and suppliers are now more confident that they will be paid promptly
A DBM Job That Goes Beyond Budgeting Itself
By: John E. Lansangan
Department of Budget and Management
With the financial crisis slowly creeping out itself from the Asian economic landscape, many countries in Asia have realized how crucial the policy and structural reforms that they laid down in the past two decades were. Many weaknesses were exposed ranging from governmental to economic, financial to political, and social to moral. One area that has been identified to critically play a major role in the attempt to redeem the battered economies of Asia is graft and corruption. In fact, analysts and observers outside of Asia such as the United Nations (UN) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) affirmed that eliminating graft and corruption is one of the issues that Asian countries should address if they really mean business.
The Philippines, through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), has already made significant strides in eradicating graft and corruption. Considered to be much less affected by the turmoil due to strong economic foundations, the country has further instituted reform measures in the government sector to prevent another beating from the crisis.
Since the start of the Estrada administration, the DBM, the country’s premiere agency tasked to formulate and execute fiscal policies, has implemented various fiscal reforms to insure the prudent and sound utilization of people’s money. Under the leadership of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, there are five fiscal reforms that went beyond the financial aspect of its job, discouraging irregularities and making government fund releases more transparent.
Cleaning the books
Foremost of these five reform measures is the resolve of the government to settle all its accounts payables (APs) from its contractors and suppliers and posting it to the Internet. Government creditors and suppliers are now more confident that they will be paid promptly