AMENDING the Omnibus Election Code is important in minimizing the impact of the ban on major infrastructure projects during election years, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the OEC should be amended to remove the ban imposed on infrastructure projects, which he calls an “old-fashioned” provision.
He made the pitch even as he lamented the Commission on Elections’s “inaction” on the Executive branch’s request for big-ticket priority infrastructure projects to be treated as exceptions to the ban.
Pernia said the removal of the ban would be “ideal” in order to ensure that infrastructure projects, which are necessary to grow the economy, would continue even during election years.
“That would be ideal. I don’t know why there should be a ban. It’s old-fashioned,” Pernia told BusinessMirror on the sidelines of the National Income Accounts press briefing on Thursday. “There should be no election ban for infrastructure projects, especially in the regions where it is most needed.”
Neda Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Rosemarie G. Edillon also explained during the briefing that a review of the Omnibus Election Code is warranted given the many years that it has been in effect.
Edillon said many reforms that have been made in public financial management can act as checks and balances on various public construction undertakings. One such reform is the removal of lump-sum appropriations which have been replaced by line-by-line budgeting.
She added that amending the OEC is necessary now that the government has shifted to a cash-based budget. If a ban is imposed on infrastructure projects, these could be in danger of being delayed and not being funded because of the new system of budgeting, she explained.
The lifting of the infra ban is crucial “if we are really transitioning into this cash-based budgeting where you are only given until the end of the year—so it is not even 12 months. It’s just until the end of the year to finish it, to finish the projects, then the payments. The projects should be finished and delivered and payments can be done, can be extended for another quarter. So I think that one should again be considered by the Comelec.”
Comelec inaction
Pernia lamented, meanwhile, the Comelec’s “inaction” on the request of the economic team for an exception from the election ban for key infrastructure projects.
The President’s economic team sought for an exception for 145 projects submitted for the 2019 General Appropriations Bill; the 603 from the Department of Public Works and Highways; and the 384 funded by official development assistance (ODA).
Pernia said the Comelec responded to the economic team regarding its request only on March 29, the start of the election ban. This despite the submission of the list of projects as early as February 18.
“These kinds of inaction on the part of other sectors in government are not going to be helpful. That’s why we always say the whole of government, the whole of citizenry is needed for a better performance of the economy and poverty reduction,” Pernia said.
In April, this newspaper reported that the implementation of big-ticket infrastructure projects faced delays as the Comelec had asked for additional documents from economic managers before it could decide on their request for exemption from the public works ban.
Economic managers earlier sought an exemption from the public works ban, which took effect on March 29, to minimize the adverse impact of a reenacted budget on GDP growth this year.
If this is not granted, the country’s economy would have to contend with the triple whammy of a reenacted budget, El Niño and the possible delay in the implementation of 1,132 public infrastructure projects.
Neda OIC and Undersecretary for Regional Development Adoracion M. Navarro told the BusinessMirror that the agency is coordinating with the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Navarro also said implementing agencies have been asked to submit the additional documents required by the Comelec.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes