Unprogrammed funds questioned
SEVERAL minority congressmen on Thursday asked the House of Representatives leadership to halt the practice of including unprogrammed funds in the annual budgets submitted by the Executive, which they said could lead to corruption.
They also raised concerns about the potential inclusion of a provision in the 2025 General Appropriations bill allowing the National Government to do a cash sweep on unused and excess funds of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCC) to fund unprogrammed projects.
“[We should] stop the inclusion of unprogrammed appropriations because it bastardizes the budget process and weakens the power of the legislative branch to scrutinize the proposed budget from the executive branch,” Party-list Rep. Raoul Danniel A. Manuel told reporters in Filipino.
The Executive has allotted P158.6 billion for unprogrammed appropriations under the proposed P6.352- trillion national budget for next year, according to the 2025 National Expenditure Program. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio