MikeLigalig.com

by PNA

The Department of Budget and Management (DMB) said it has resolved the technical glitch in its Electronic Transparency and Accountability Initiative for Lump Sum Funds(eTAILS) module, which was erroneously reported as Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Earlier, reports came out that Revilla received P210 million as his PDAF allocation for 2011.

Abad, however, said the Senator only received P100 million last year, citing that the higher figure was only due to the multiple identical entries for the acquisition of multicabs and patrol vehicles for the Cavite local government.

He said that the multiple identical entries were “reflected only in the web posting module, and not in the official release documents for Revilla's PDAF.”

“We apologize to the public and to Senator Revilla for the confusion caused by the error in our published report. We place a very high premium on the publication of accurate data in our website, and we have taken steps to fix the inaccuracies and ensure that similar mistakes do not happen in the future,” he said.

DBM uses eTAILS to automatically publish fund release reports to its official website. The system does not require the manual entry of data into the program.

“The release documents for Senator Revilla’s PDAF are unaffected by the technical glitch in our eTAILS module. We are now studying other reports published in the DBM website to check if they have also been hit by the system bug.” Abad said.

“Ultimately, however, we are pleased that the public remains deeply interested in the manner through which we manage the people’s funds. We enjoin all Filipinosâ€" particularly the media and other interested groups â€" to continue strengthening the feedback mechanism for our processes, so that we can boost efficiency, accuracy, and accountability in all levels of government,” he said.

The Budget and Management chief added that “all incumbent senators have already received their respective PDAF releases from the DBM, with the exception of Senator Joker Arroyo and Senator Panfilo Lacson, as neither of whom requested fund releases for their projects under the 2011 budget.”