Friday, August 31, 2007 Fund rules fail to stop pork barrel anomalies
THE pork barrel has been given a new name and rules have been set to limit the projects the funds may be used for. But a public administration professor said many congressmen still get away with using the lard to grease their pockets.
“The congressman concerned has to have an accomplice and (the accomplice) must also be corrupt in order for it to work,” said Dr. J. Prospero de Vera III of the University of the Philippines.
Legislators get away with it partly because it is difficult to track which projects they spend the allocation on.
Moreover, de Vera said, the Commission on Audit (COA) makes an accounting of the funds only after they money is spent.
Likewise, the Office of the Ombudsman, whose investigations rely on the findings of COA, only has until the end of the elective term to administratively pursue a congressman suspected of graft.
General scheme
The misappropriation follows a general scheme. First, a project is identified for funding. Next, the money is allocated and its release is coursed through the government agency tasked to implement the project.
Competitive bidding is generally required to ensure that the government spends the least but gets the most from its money.
The agency contracts the job out to the private firm that wins the bidding.
Get around
But there are ways to get around this and many projects end up getting awarded to a favored contractor, who will mulct from the project funds money to be used in making large kickbacks that will then be shared between the legislator and the accomplice.
”When pork barrel became the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund), the rules were changed,” de Vera said.
A congressman, for instance, can no longer spend money on basketball courts and other projects not considered by the present administration as priority.
Likewise, money can no longer be released to a non-government recipient.
However, de Vera acknowledged that reports of misappropriation still continue and a lot of it involves infrastructure projects and purchases.
“If the House leadership is really serious in ending this, I’m sure it can,” de Vera said. (KNR)
