Arroyo to transfer Malacañang’s contract review powers to NEDA

President Arroyo will transfer the authority to review contracts involving P50 million and above from Malacañang to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

During the Estrada administration, it was the Office of the Executive Secretary that had the power to review contracts amounting to P50 million and above.

Speaking before the Foundation for Economic Freedom Inc. conference at the Mandarin Hotel in Makati yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo said she has instructed Executive Secretary Renato de Villa to draft the executive order that would implement the latest reform in her administration.

"The review (of contracts involving P50 million and above) will go to the (Investment Coordinating Council of) NEDA to make it more transparent," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said the government needs to restore "transparency" in transactions involving public funds to reduce corruption, which has reached Malacañang.

"The task of improving moral standards in governance must be accommodated by constant improvements in the system of government, mechanism of accountability must be improved, the margins of discretions of decision-makers must be narrowed to reduce options of corruption," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said she will completely eliminate all "sources of corruption" within the Office of the President and other government agencies.

"I commit the presidency to the modernization of our economic policy architecture," she said. "Only by doing so can we encourage a robust economy in competitive terms only by doing so gainful employment for our people."

Mrs. Arroyo said her administration will implement these policy reforms to solve the P225 billion budgetary deficit that the government is expecting.

"Government must be reorganized where it is able to do more with less, and gradually becoming a lesser drag on our economic growth," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said FEF was one of the first groups in "Civil Society" to "ring the alarm" on the "rebirth of cronyism" in the Estrada administration.

"We saw how our economy floundered in the recent past despite strong fundamentals to begin with when crisis of confidence gripped the previous administration," she said.

"When policy-making went awry, when cronyism made roots permeable and corruption run amuck, the economic fundamentals turned meaningless."

Mrs. Arroyo said she will ensure that "vulnerable sectors" are protected when her administration "vigorously" pursues economic reforms.

"Good governance is about moral ascendancy," she said. "If public officials take bribes, the private sector cannot be ruled. Government revenues cannot be collected, the rules become unpredictable, the costs of doing business in our economy rises intolerably. Public confidence in the wisdom of our policy decisions erode." – Marichu Villanueva