"The agency cannot be allowed to continue operatingóor, more accurately, not operating the way it has."
Some government institutions that were established on the bases of firm logical foundations and with the best of intentions go off the rails, fail to accomplish their mission, and become burdens on the Treasury. One such institution is the Philippine International Trading Corporation.
PITC’s creators believed that good management of the economy necessitated, among other things, the establishment of an institution that would undertake the international trading operations—imports mainly, because the private sector handled its own export transactions—of the government. They believed that an entity like PITC, being government-owned and an in-bulk importer of merchandise, would be the beneficiary of preferential prices, which would be passed on to both the government and private-sector consumers. Unfortunately, the intention of PITC’s creators was not realized. For reasons that almost certainly had to do with the country’s bureaucratic culture, the departments and instrumentalities of the government largely continued to undertake their own international trading.
The government’s procurement personnel were not to be deprived of the fun of importing and the unholy things that went with it.
Under the circumstances PITC had no choice but maintain a quiet, away-from-the-limelight existence. Only the well-informed were aware of PITC’s continued existence and its operational status. The rest of the Filipino people heard virtually nothing more about PITC.
Until recently. A few months ago in the course of a Senate hearing, it was revealed that PITC had become the place for funds that government departments and agencies were unlikely to be able to spend before the end of the government’s fiscal year under government budgeting regulations funds that are unexpended at focal year-end automatically revert to the Treasury.
To circumvent the rule on reversion of unexpended funds, government departments and agencies have been conniving with PITC to keep such funds on deposit with—“parked” is the preferred terminology for the transaction—that government entity. At the time of the Senate hearing, the “parked” funds apparently totalled P33 billion.
For the government—and the economy—there is a double whammy here. On one hand, needy departments and agencies are deprived of the funds illegally “parked” by the underspending departments and agencies. On the other hand, the government is prevented from making use of an otherwise perfectly useful governance mechanism.
With the revelation of the parking-with-PITC practice of many government departments and agencies, budgeted funds that are unexpended by year-end will not automatically revert to the Treasury. Hopefully, the Department of Budget and Management will be more vigilant in that regard in the coming days.
But how about PITC?
PITC cannot be allowed to continue operating—or, more accurately, not operating—the way it has. It can be abolished; that is the drastic option. Or, PITC can be allowed to continue to exist, as the DTI arm responsible for all—repeat, all—government transactions.
PITC can be sensibly used by the government. Let that be the case.