THE SENATE and House of Representatives are set to convene a joint oversight committee to scrutinize underspending on government agencies and foreign-assisted projects (FAPs), a senator said on Tuesday.
“We already have items that we want to look at like the underspending in agencies, foreign-assisted projects, and some projects that we should drill down on, like the construction of hospitals because our hospitals are at overcapacity,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who heads the Senate Finance panel, told a news briefing on Tuesday.
Lawmakers are set to convene a Joint Congressional Oversight Committee that would handle the monitoring of government expenditures and the compliance of agencies with the 2026 General Appropriations Act.
Mr. Gatchalian said that the panel will be composed of Finance heads of the Senate and House of Representatives. The oversight committee will also conduct ocular inspections of government projects to check their progress.
The Department of Budget and Management assured there will be no delays in the implementation of foreign-assisted projects after government counterpart funds for FAPs were vetoed in the 2026 budget.
“There will be no delay because, as mentioned, the funds are already with the agency itself,” Budget Undersecretary Goddes Hope O. Libiran said in a Viber message to BusinessWorld on Tuesday.
The funds were among the P92.5-billion unprogrammed appropriations (UAs) vetoed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. under the P6.793-trillion national budget.
UAs are standby funds that can only be used for certain projects that may be charged against excess or windfall revenues to fund specific programs and projects.
In addition, Ms. Libiran said the funds needed to support ongoing FAPs are already in budget of respective government agencies.
“For the UA-FAPs GOP, this covers the peso counterpart for foreign-assisted projects that are still under negotiation and were not able to meet the March 31 cutoff during budget preparation,” she said.
“It also includes additional government counterpart funding for ongoing FAPs, which already have provisions in the agencies’ regular budgets, to support catch-up activities within the budget year.”
Last year, a report from the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development said 29 official development assistance (ODA) projects faced issues due to budget and funding flow problems.
The reclassification of funds to unprogrammed appropriations was cited as the most common cause, it said.
Unlike loan proceeds, which are easier to access, unprogrammed funds rely on excess revenues. The lack of firm appropriations for counterpart funding remains a major bottleneck, risking missed loan disbursement schedules and project milestones.
Additionally, Mr. Gatchalian said the joint panel would also enable lawmakers to examine potentially contentious items in the national spending plan, providing them with more information to guide deliberations in the next budget season.
“I want to discuss the highly contentious items ahead of time so that when it comes to budget briefing, you have context or you already know the information,” he said.
Mr. Gatchalian said Congress has implemented safeguards within the budget to prevent further misuse of funding, amid the government’s ongoing corruption probe.
“We have put all the safeguards (in the budget), but of course, implementation is different,” he said.
This followed Senator Maria Imelda R. Marcos’ remarks, questioning the reduction of key infrastructure projects.
Among the lawmaker’s special provisions are the ban on political involvement in the distribution of government aid, the monthly oversight on government infrastructure and farm-to-market roads, and the implementation of grid coordinates for these projects.
Congress has been put in the spotlight during the last year’s budget deliberations, as several senior lawmakers and officials were implicated into the siphoning of billions in funding meant for government projects.
Meanwhile, a House committee will coordinate with government agencies to monitor the disbursement of public funds in a bid to curb corruption in state spending, a congressman said on Tuesday.
Party-list Rep. Terry L. Ridon, who heads the House Public Accounts panel, said his committee will exercise its oversight powers over government spending, including monitoring public bidding of materials and project implementation to cut down on wasteful spending and corruption.
“The committee will also work with civil society and people’s organizations to facilitate public participation in monitoring the implementation of the 2026 national budget,” he said in a statement. “We will invite the public to join monitoring activities and budget implementation discussions.”
He added that the House Public Accounts Committee will press the Public Works department to televise its procurement and bidding processes, recommending other government agencies to do the same.
The congressional panel will also monitor the Education department’s school building activities and the Agriculture department’s farm-to-market road program.
“This includes ensuring that blacklisted Department of Public Works and Highways contractors will not be able to participate in Department of Education and Department of Agriculture procurement activities,” he said.
Government agencies should also tighten the qualifications for potential government bidders.
“The prohibition on using another entity’s procurement license must be strictly enforced, with corresponding consequences for violations, such as outright blacklisting and the filing of criminal complaints,” Mr. Ridon said.
The House Public Accounts panel will also work with the Health and Social Welfare departments to prevent “political interference” during aid distribution, he said.
In a separate statement, House Minority Leader and Party-list Rep. Leila M. de Lima said that lawmakers should also approve a bill seeking to boost the transparency of government spending.
“Aside from this oversight committee, it would be vital to institutionalize this initiative through the passage of the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability Act,” she said. — Adrian H. Halili, Aubrey Rose A. Inosante and Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
