WITH THE worrisome findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) – that over P10 billion in public funds remain unliquidated – the government should consider slowing down the conditional cash transfer’s implementation to make sure only the poor benefit from it. The slowdown may provide the government the needed breather to fine-tune the program’s targeting mechanism, among others, plugging the leaks in the process.
We have to adopt a go-slow approach to the 4Ps because we are still learning, obviously. Remember, 4Ps is an attempt to replicate Bolsa Familia, Brazil’s successful social welfare program. COA’s findings show we still have a lot to learn to perfect the program.
As early as 2015, the state-owned think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) urged the government to deepen rather than expand the coverage of 4Ps after finding out in a study that the program was suffering from a 29-percent leakage rate. This meant that roughly three in every 10 of the beneficiaries were not poor and did not even deserve to be part of the program. In a report that year, COA also prodded the government to suspend the expansion of its flagship poverty alleviation program until the leakages are plugged.
Despite these recommendations, however, 4Ps still saw rapid expansion under the Aquino administration in its attempt to boost the “mass registration” of the program.
Meanwhile, a World Bank report also revealed even the Duterte administration continued expanding the program to benefit about 20 percent of the population.
Aside from the leakage issues, the government should also revisit the program’s implementation cost. There were reports 4Ps’ cost is higher than Bolsa Familia’s.
In the 2015 study, PIDS noted the “significant share” of 4Ps’ administration cost, amounting to as much as P4 billion in 2011. Such amount can already support 266,667 families with three eligible children for one year, according to the think-tank.
The COA’s recent audit finding means the 4Ps needs tweaking and its database cleaned up. No doubt about it.
