Defense probe body recommends shift in budget programming

MANILA, Philippines - A special investigating body created by the defense department early this year to look into the alleged anomalies in the military has recommended a shift in the budget programming and procurement system of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The recommendation which was forwarded to the office of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, said actual logistics need should be delivered to tactical units instead of releasing cash to field commanders.                                                                

“It is not surprising that often our officers would excuse ‘conversion’ due to the inability of the system to provide for the actual needs of our soldiers. But this excuse is only viable in the case of field assignments where the environment is volatile and unpredictable,” said the Special Defense Investigation Committee (SDIC), chaired by lawyer Patrick Velez.

Conversion happens in the field most of the time because of lack of planning.

With the provision of real logistics the conversion scheme employed by some military officials in pocketing cash programmed to meet the logistical needs of the soldiers in the field would be eliminated.

“Provide the actual needs of soldiers in the field, not money logistics,” the SDIC body recommended to Gazmin.

On top of eliminating conversion, the shift to actual logistics will afford field commanders and their tactical units time to focus on performing their assigned missions.

“With such provisions, the tactical units can focus on combat operations. The government should provide for the actual needs of soldiers in the field and not money logistics for them to have immediate requirement and to unburden the military in other areas, other than operations. There must be maintenance of supply stock as part of their requirements for at least two months,” the special defense probe body said.

The SDIC, on the other hand, disagreed with the suggestion of key military officials that the probe body should also come up with a new disbursement scheme peculiar to the AFP to solve the excessive cash advances in the organization. Commanders usually turn to the “cash advance” scheme which is carried out under the guise of logistical procurement.

“We don’t think this is an appropriate solution (new disbursement scheme ),” SDIC said.

It pointed out in the recommendation that there are enough existing AFP guidelines and Commission on Audit (COA) circulars to shield the Cash Advance System from being abused.

It said the guidelines only need to be strictly enforced.