Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday said he sees no apparent urgency in the passage of the Government Rightsizing Bill even if its approval was given priority by the Executive.
Gatchalian said this was because the Department of Budget and Management has yet to come up with its cost analysis and impact study which would show the pros and cons of rightsizing the bureaucracy.
He said that last Tuesday’s consultative meeting with various stakeholders regarding the proposed measure lacks details as the DBM cannot identify which departments or government offices need to be shut down due to redundancy of functions.
“Well, it looks like there is no urgency because there are no studies. If this is urgent, studies should have been complete with explanations. Even though there is a sense of urgency, but there is no practice of urgency. So my basic question was, for example, I asked what departments have redundant functions? They couldn’t answer us,” Gatchalian said at the Kapihan sa Senado media forum.
He said the DBM apparently wants the Senate to craft a measure which it will just apply as the need arises. He said it should be the other way around.
Senate President Francis Escudero has filed Senate Bill (SB) No. 890 or Rightsizing the National Government Act of 2022, on July 26, 2022. It aims to rationalize the government bureaucracy through rightsizing which is expected to promote efficiency, effectiveness and economy in the delivery of public services by re-organizing the bloated, overstaffed, overlapping, and fragmented government agencies.
A similar measure was filed by the Senate (SB No. 1395) during the 17th Congress but it remained pending on second reading.
“On this score, the current administration seeks to revive the rightsizing of the bureaucracy as a two-pronged formula, economy on one hand and efficiency on the other. It is envisioned to deliver significant billions in savings and at the same time get rid of redundant and non-functioning government agencies,” Escudero said in filing SB No. 890.
Gatchalian said there seems to be an urgency in the passage of this measure since Escudero filed the bill, but sadly, the DBM has not presented any study on this since what it has were only “ideas.”
“But what’s important to us are details. Very basic. How much savings will we generate? If the [DBM] is saying around P7 billion to P8 billion, where will that come from? Is it via merger, via abolition, via transferring of employees? They cannot identify it. But again, I support the principle of making government efficient,” he said.
He said this is for the reason why continued studies should be done by the government to identify which agencies are no longer needed so they can decide on what to do with them.
“The DBM plays a vital role since it knows everything because the budgets of the different agencies pass through it. But it will be the whole of the government because the other government agencies will know what offices are vital, what are redundant, what should be abolished or merged, and what offices should have an increase in personnel,” Gatchalian added.
