A comprehensive audit of all GOCCs is now underway in preparation for the issuance of an executive order laying down administrative measures intended to jumpstart the government’s bureaucratic streamlining program.
Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin told reporters that once the streamlining program has been laid out, government would be able to implement its P15-billion early retirement program that was supposed to have been in place last year.
Boncodin said that since the 2003 budget already allocated this amount, the same resources would be available this year from the re-enacted 2004 budget.
"We just need to come up with a rationalization program and the decision was to start with GOCCs," Boncodin said. She added there are at least 74 chartered or parent GOCCs in the initial list compiled by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). She said the list includes at least 59 subsidiaries and other entities.
Boncodin said that over the last two years, GOCCs have absorbed at least P5.7-billion worth of government subsidies for various purposes, under different laws and charters that created the corporations.
"We realize that we can not sustain this indefinitely," Boncodin said. "We want to find out exactly how many GOCCs we have and which ones of these entities are still relevant."
According to Boncodin, the government’s objective is to rationalize these GOCCs and identify which ones are still necessary and which ones could be dissolved and liquidated or merged with other corporations.
Boncodin admitted that while the Arroyo administration could not complete the rationalization through purely administrative measures, she said there are immediate actions possible while waiting for Congress to take action.
According to Boncodin, the inventory was ordered by the Presidential Commission on Effective Governance (PCEG), a commission created by former President Joseph Estrada.
Bondocin said the PCEG wanted to come up with a common list of all GOCCs that all the line agencies could agree on.
"Different departments have different lists, the Commission on Audit has a different list, the budget department has yet another list and so on," Boncodin said. "There has to be a serious reconciliation of all these lists."
Until the inventory of all GOCCs has been finalized and agreed upon, Boncodin said government would not be able to draw long-term policy lines.
"There are agencies that consider themselves GOCCs that other agencies do not recognize," she said. "So the first thing to do is to agree which ones of these entities are really GOCCs and which ones are not."
After the inventory, Boncodin said the government would have to evaluate which of these GOCCs should continue to exist and which ones should be abolished or merged with other GOCCs.
Boncodin said the PCEG will drafting a uniform guideline for GOCCs and it will be issued by Malacanang in the form of an executive order.
"Eventually we will require legislative action but in the meantime, there are administrative measures that we can do," Boncodin said. „This is what we are trying to figure out. We have to know what we can do in the meantime."
Boncodin said the GOCCs would be asked to specify their duties and responsibilities and define their contributions to the economy. "Basically, we will be asking them to justify their continued existence," she said. "We can no longer allow GOCCs to bend rules or to not comply with fiscal discipline."