Taguig City Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano on Saturday reiterated his call for Congress to use its oversight powers in addressing the issue of unused funds earmarked for assistance to small businesses under the Bayanihan 2 aid package.
Cayetano, who is running for senator in the May 9 elections, made the call after acting Budget Secretary Tina Canda said the department will leave it to lawmakers to open an inquiry into unused Bayanihan 2 funds.
“Congress has to step up and look into this issue of unused funds. Things can’t be this way all the time,” Cayetano said.
He adverted to House Resolution 1731 filed on April 28, 2021 urging the House of Representatives to exercise its oversight powers to look into the utilization of funds under the Bayanihan 1 and 2 spending bills.
The resolution said Congress oversight will help the national government craft future stimulus programs.
“We’ve been saying that we need strong oversight for something as big and ambitious as Bayanihan 2, because it has so many moving parts,” Cayetano said.
A report released by the Commission on Audit (COA) dated March 2, 2022 had flagged P4.99 billion in unused funds intended for the COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises or CARES program of the Small Business Corporation (SB Corp.), a state-run company under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
State auditors had found that SB Corp. used only P4.09 billion or 45.04 percent of the total budget of P9.08 billion allocated for loans to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises under the Bayanihan 2 spending bill, which expired on June 30, 2021.
Around P4.99 billion or 54.96 percent of the budget allocated went unused and was reverted to the government’s General Fund, according to the Department of Budget and Management.
According to Cayetano, instead of leaving the money unused, Congress could have stepped in to reprogram the funds for more readily-available aid programs for the people.