Lawmaker wants GOCCs to report performance directly to the public

MANILA, Philippines - Government-owned and-controlled corporations (GOCCs) should routinely report their operating and financial performance directly to the public – to Filipino taxpayers – not just to the Department of Finance (DOF), Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said yesterday.

The DOF earlier ordered 158 GOCCs to submit all necessary information to the department a month before their board meetings, as part of new reporting rules meant to rein in abuses, including excessive rewards that many boards have been giving themselves.

“Taxpayers are the ultimate shareholders of all GOCCs. Thus, GOCCs should disclose their quarterly and annual results to the public, through management conducting a news conference, where their performance can be openly scrutinized by the media,” Barzaga said.

GOCCs should also post detailed quarterly and annual reports on their websites, in a format to be approved by the DOF, for all to see, the senior lawmaker said.

“The reports should include the entity’s net profit or loss in the period under review, subsidy received, dividends remitted to the National Treasury, and the emoluments of board members and senior executives,” he said.

To discourage self-dealing, he said the reports should also include all “related party transactions” by board members and senior executives. “This will promote absolute transparency and full accountability in the operations of every GOCC,” he said.

He said many GOCCs still lack transparency. “If you go to the website of the National Power Corp., for instance, the latest publicly available annual report you can download is for 2008,” he said.

Barzaga has been pushing for a mandatory cap on the remuneration of board members and senior executives at GOCCs, including Cabinet members who, by virtue of their positions, concurrently serve on the boards of multiple state-run firms.

He cited the case of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., where the heads of the DOF, Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) serve as board members.

At the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., the heads of the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) serve as board members.

At the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), the heads of the DOF, DBM, DTI, DOLE and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council serve as board members. At the National Development Co., the heads of the DTI, DOF, DBM, DOE, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) serve as board members.

At the Land Bank of the Philippines, the heads of the DOF, DOLE, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Agrarian Reform serve as board members. At the National Transmission Corp., the heads of the DOF, DOE, and DENR serve as board members.