Source:  Business World, 30 January 2012

 

A BALANCE between the need to accelerate growth and promote good governance needs to be struck by the government, the new chief of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) said, prompting a Cabinet official to defend the Aquino administration’s initiatives.

 “While we support the ‘Daang Matuwid’ (straight path) policy, there has been some paralysis and it is time the government should get more things done,” MAP President Eduardo V. Francisco yesterday said during the induction of the organization’s new set of officers.

He highlighted the MAP’s battle cry for the year, “Execution with integrity for progress,” and urged the government to “do what is right and important in moving [the] country forward”.

Public spending, particularly in infrastructure, plunged last year due to delays in project implementation, which officials said was inevitable given strict costing reviews and procurement reforms.

The government spent only P1.346 trillion as of November last year, well below the P1.711 trillion allocated for 2011. Infrastructure spending amounted to just P118.2 billion during the 11-month period, not even half of the full-year target.

This underspending, along with a drop in exports, has been blamed for last year’s underwhelming economic performance. Gross domestic product growth was 3.7% in 2011, the government yesterday reported, missing the 5-6% target and 4.5-5.5% forecast. It was also substantially lower than 2010’s 7.6%.

“Things could be better . The growth momentum is slow. The government has had a year to fix their strategy. They should now be ready to move,” Mr. Francisco continued at the sidelines of the MAP meeting.

But Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, who gave a keynote speech at the event, warned that the Philippines would be “cheating itself” if it passed up the “unique opportunity” to eradicate corruption.

“So what if we have one or two good years of growth, but if in the process we sacrifice the chance to transform government, transform how we think, transform how we do business?” he said.

Mr. Purisima blasted critics of the Aquino administration’s centerpiece public-private partnership (PPP) program — still to fully take off more than a year after it was launched, saying they should look at the “facts.”

He pointed out the Ramos administration launched its first PPP project — the Bauang Power Plant — in one year but this was aided by emergency powers. The first non-power PPP project — the computerization of the Land Transportation Office’s operations — took five years, he added.

“The same is true with the Arroyo administration. The PPP computerization project came in after two years,” Mr. Purisima said, noting that in contrast the Aquino administration rolled out the Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway Link project in 16 months.

The Finance chief challenged the private sector to aid the government in spurring growth.

“We cannot create a vibrant economy without you putting in your money… In the central bank, there’s close to P2 trillion sitting there [in special deposit accounts] not doing the country any good. It’s time that you put your money where your mouth is and vote with confidence by investing and putting your money to more productive use,” he said.

Mr. Purisima also enjoined businesses to participate in the fight for good governance by paying the right taxes, avoiding smuggling and condemning bribery.

“You should know better than that because you run organizations. You should know better than that because you know how hard it is to transform a company, let alone a government,” he said. — D. C. J. Jiao