Senate scraps House’s overseeing CCT spending
By Angie M. Rosales 11/24/2010The House of Representatives’ special provision on the national budget to oversee the implementation of President Aquino’s controversial P21.9-billion dole-out program next year has been scrapped by the Senate.
In sponsoring the proposed P1.645-trillion national expenditure program (NEP) for 2011, finance committee chairman Sen. Franklin Drilon defended the move to “delete” the provision creating a congressional oversight committee authorized to realign savings under the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.
“The realignment is a function of the Executive branch and in my view, you cannot vest upon the oversight committee — which will be composed of members of Congress and the Executive — to realign items in the budget. That is a prerogative of the President insofar as the executive branch is concerned.
The House of Representatives, in approving on third and final reading its version of the budget bill early this month, introduced a so-called monitoring mechanism to ensure the proper disbursement of the lump-sum items that included the CCT as well as the P7.1 billion appropriation for the Enhancement Facilities Program (EFP) of the Department of Health (DoH).
Sen. Edgardo Angara, who has been consistently saying that the allocation on CCT will suffer a cut in the end, expressed doubts whether the Senate can maintain its stance on the matter, given the insistence of the lower house in keeping the said provision..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101124hed4.html
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