Dlalagu.
Business Insight
Tuesday, July
Senate gave loose change
to GAD, House gave zeto
BY PETEN IABII{GO
THE House of Reptesentatives
(HREP) did not spend a single
centavo on Gendef and DeveloP-
merit (GAD) ptograms in 2018
u'hile the Senate allocated only
0.08 perceot a fat cry from the
- in 2018, the House of RePre-
required five pergent of its total
budget approptiation for the year.
SENATE
and monitor the effectiveness of
gender-related activities.
"Since no GFPS was estab-
lished, no GAD Plan and Budget
was formulated for CY 201 8. Thus,
no gender-related activities/pro-
grams. . . wete implemented duting
the year," the COA reporl, read.
Aside ftom the Magna Cara for
Women, the COA said the inaction
of the HREP was also contrary
to the geneml ptovisions of the
General Appropriations Act for
2018 which mandated all agencies
of the government to formulate
their GAD Plans "to addtess gen-
der issues vrithin theit concerned
sectors ot mandate."
Ironica.lly, House Speaker Gloria
Macapagal-Aroyo was the one
who signed the Magna Carta for
' Women into law on August 14,
2009 vrhen she was sti.ll president.
On, the other hand, the Senate
set aside only P5 million for GAD
expenses, which was equivalent to
only to 0.08 percent of is 2018 total
appropriationq and spent less than
half of tbat sum for related activities,
The biggest item on the pto-
gram - of a perma-
t}te creation
nent GAD Staff - with P2.67
million in allocations remained
16, 2019
The Magna Carta fot Women
requires government agencies to
allocate 6ve percent of theA total
appropriations to GAD Progtamq
projecs, and activities. "to promote
woment human rights and elimi-
nate gender discrimination."
sentatives received P11,3 billion
in appropriations, while the Senate
ol
only paper.
During the year, the Serate or-
dered an in"entory and goupings
of laws an{ pending bills concetn-
ing women, conducted informa-
tion dissbmination abounthe said
ldslative measures, hosted fotums
fot discussions on iaitiatives to
Ptomote women emPowermeot
and gender equality from advo-
cacy groups, held consultations
vrith various women's groups to
identif issues that needed legisla-
tive action, requited employees to
anend gender sensitivity ftainings,
aod stated a program to create sex
disaggregated database.
All these came up to P2.189 mil-
lion or 44 percent of the P5 milion
set aside by the Senate.
The audit team said the Senate
was able to prepare is GAD PIan
and Bufues (GPB) for 2018 but dris
was not submitted to dre Pbilippine
Commission on Women (?CW) for
revievr and endo$ement
Government auditon recom-
mended that the Senate comPly
with the law and integrate a GAD
Plan in its tegular activities with
sufficient allocations of five pet-
cent of its appropriation each year.
Resionding to the audit find-
ings, t}le Senate said it'has reli-
giously submitted its GAD Plan
$, rruOlT pAecttt
had P5.83 billion, which should
have meant P565 million and P291
milLion in funding for their GAD
irograms, respectively.
However, the HREP failed to
esablish a GAD Focal Point SYs-
rem (GFPS) rhatwas supposed to
formulate plaas. implement them,
-,-----,.- . ::- :----.:'*----.:.
See SENAIE> FageB3
and Budget to the PCW since
2012, but the 2018 GPB was re-
turned for supposedly missing tlre
submission deadline,
It said the GAD budget was
completed eatly but encoding the
document to the PCW e-system
proved dificult due to "technical"
problems.
The COA noted that the Sen-
ate leadelship admitted that the
2018 budget for the Senate GAD
is "very minimal compared to its
total budget."
"However, this is essentially be-
cause 5 percent of the total budget
appropdation of the Senate which
is equivalent to P291,387,550 is
simply fat too much and beyond
the absorptive capacilyof the Sen-
ate to spend and utilize on GAD
projects," the audit team cited in
the management comment.
In addition, the Senate cited
a PCW guideline that prognms,
proiects and activities that may be
charged against the GAD budget
must be "telated to the Senate's
mandate of crating legislation."
'Thus, other ptograms; projects
and activities which may be sought
to be funded by tle Senate ...
would most Likely oot be allovred
ot endorsed by the PCW," audi-
tors noted.