Philippines urges spending after China-like graft chill THE Philippines ended 2014 with its weakest economic report in almost three years as moves to curb graft and check abuse of power at all levels of government deterred public spending. President Benigno S. C. Aquino III now faces the challenge of convincing officials to unclog the logjam. China’s anti-corruption crackdown led officials to slash luxury spending and entertainment. In the Philippines, a similar drive saw civil servants delaying projects as varied as rail lines, fishing ports and free chickens for the poor, according to budget officers. About $1.85 billion, or 15% of planned state spending, went unused in the third quarter, government data show. “Officials are now gun shy,” Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said in an interview last month. “They take a while before they sign papers, and if there are issues, they would prefer not to proceed. There is an air of uncertainty hanging over our heads.” The challenge is preventing the fallout from spreading to other sectors of the Southeast Asian nation, as Mr. Aquino cleans up the bureaucracy to boost investment and propel expansion beyond the end of his term next year. While the president has turned the Philippines into one of the region’s fastest-rising economies in recent years, growth will probably slow to about 6% in 2014 and this year, from more than 7% in 2013, Bloomberg surveys show. “The government is becoming cautious with spending on all fronts,” said Vaninder Singh, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Singapore. “We’re seeing a pretty significant impact on the economy.” While officials grapple with stricter disbursement procedures under Mr. Aquino’s anti-corruption drive, the president himself is struggling to spend after the nation’s top court last year barred the executive office from using budget savings to finance projects without the approval of lawmakers. After the Supreme Court ruled in July that Mr. Aquino’s $3.2-billion stimulus package was illegal because he hadn’t gone through Congress, government projects that were held up include the rehabilitation of two Manila rail lines, 11 fishing ports, sea walls and lighthouses, according to the budget department. They could only proceed after the passage of a supplemental budget in December.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 07:41:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015