MANILA, Philippines - Former senator and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto on Monday said the national government spent P10.4 billion on consultants and professional services in 2008, up from the P10.01 billion spent in 2007.
In a statement, Recto said the Senate and the House of Representatives shelled out the most money -- P277 million -- for consultants in 2008. The Department of Agrarian Reform came next with P181.5 million, followed by the Department of Transportation and Communications (P144 million); Department of Finance (P130.2 million); and the Department of Education (P125.2 million).
Other agencies which also racked up huge consultancy bills were the Department of Energy (P112.7 million); Department of Agriculture (P108.2 million); and the Office of the President (P95.2 million).
All in all, government’s “army of consultants” accounted for P1.73 billion, according to records of the Commission on Audit.
Recto said the hiring of consultants is not bad per se especially since
some agencies hire consultants to circumvent the ban in the hiring of
permanent government personnel. “Given the low pay in the bureaucracy
today, the only way an agency can tap even on a part-time basis a
topnotch professional is by making him a consultant, as pirating him
is out of the question , “ he said.
In the case of agencies with huge consultancy expenses, Recto said this
could be “partly due to foreign=assisted projects, the donors of which
have imposed it as a loan condition.”
(abs-cbn)
He added, however, hiring of consultants must be a regulated practice.
“It must be a last option, to be resorted to only after assessing that
there is no organic personnel who can do the job and that no
duplication of work will happen,” he said.
P494-B needed to keep gov’t running
Recto said the national government spent P494 billion annually in
salaries and pensions, which is a P64-billion peso jump from last year,
on account of an across-the-board hike in pay.
Included in the P494 billion are salaries of civilian and uniformed
personnel, allowances, bonuses, insurance premiums, pension
contributions, pensions of retired uniformed personnel and other
benefits.
He added, however, that consultants and “professional services” are not
booked as employee compensation but as operational expense. “This is a
segregation, which artificially lowers payroll spending,” he said.
Of the P10.4 billion spent for professional services in 2008 (the
latest fiscal year subjected to Commission on Audit), government
consultants accounted for P1.73 billion.
The rest went to legal services (P110 million); janitorial services
(P1.2 billion); security services (P2 billion); environment services
(P1 billion); “general” services (P1.8 billion) ;and “other
professional services” (P2.45 billion).
