Bill seeking to reorganize bureaucracy filed

MANILA, Philippines - Two lawmakers are urging Congress to reorganize the bureaucracy by abolishing certain agencies and reducing the number of state personnel to save taxpayers’ money.

Reps. Gary Alejano and Francisco Ashley Acedillo of party-list group Magdalo filed a bill seeking to reorganize the government bureaucracy and create a reorganization commission.

“The need for a sound expenditure management in the bureaucracy has become more important through the years as government resources have become limited and the needs of society have become almost inexhaustible,” Alejano and Acedillo said.

They said the bureaucracy is bloated, making it a huge burden to taxpayers.

“It is a big contributor to the tremendous waste of resources, which could have helped unleash the potentials of the economy and make growth and development inclusive,” they added.

According to them, by focusing limited resources on the provision of basic services the government would effectively reduce poverty and help bring about the inclusive economic resurgence, they said.

“Trimming down the bureaucracy is needed to do away with the unnecessary and redundant appendages of the government. Admittedly, the move to streamline the bureaucracy needs time and study, but we have to move fast,” they said.

Under the proposed Government Reorganization Law, the planned Government Reorganization Commission (GRC) will conduct studies and propose measures to abolish, merge, integrate, transfer, regroup or restructure departments, bureaus, offices, government-owned and controlled corporations and other agencies to eliminate overlapping and/or fragmented functions of programs and activities.

The GRC would also conduct a survey of the bureaucracy and draft a plan to reorganize entities and offices under the executive branch of government.

It would recommend a similar reorganization for the judiciary and independent constitutional agencies.

The bill requires the bureaucracy to implement a re-tooling, re-training and re-deployment program for personnel who may be displaced as a result of the reorganization.

According to budget documents submitted to the House of Representatives, the number of government personnel has grown from less than one million during the time of the late President Corazon Aquino to 1.245 million under her son, President Aquino.

The 1.245 million excludes contractual workers.

Government salaries have doubled, with the President now getting P120,000 in monthly basic pay. The salary of a Cabinet member and a senator or congressman now ranges from P90,000 to P97,163. It used to be only P35,000.

Undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, justices of the Supreme Court, Sandiganbayan, Court of Appeals and Court of Tax Appeals now receive between P73,100 to P97,163 in basic monthly pay.

The huge salaries are making government personnel cling to their jobs until compulsory retirement age, when they get up to 100 percent of their basic pay as pension depending on length of service.