vious financial system can be easily seen in the number and nature of appropriation bills annually passed by the Philippine Commission and the Philippine Legislature. From April 3, 1915, to March 16, 1916, for instance, thirty-seven Acts were passed, carrying a total appropriation of over 38,000,000 pesos. These Acts showed a lack of systematized groupings of objects for the easy comprehension of the public or the Legislature. 156. The Old Procedure. The procedure followed in the submission and preparation of estimates was similar to the American Federal practice. Thirty days before the opening of the regular session, each bureau chief sent to the Executive Secretary a statement of the receipts and expenditures of his bureau or office during the year, and an estimate of the receipts and necessary expenditures thereof for the ensuing fiscal year. Like the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, the Executive Secretary simply compiled these estimates and sent them to the Legislature. He had no power of revision or coördination. There was no executive responsible for the fiscal plan of the Government. Bills appropriating money were considered on their individual merits, and not on a well-defined fiscal plan for the entire country. Such, in brief, was the system of government finances in vogue prior to the enactment of the Jones Law. 157. The New System. The coming of the Jones Law did not immediately solve the problem. The Law did not provide for a budgetary system, and there were some who doubted whether it could be made possible under its provisions. Section 21 of the Jones Law states that, "The GovernorGeneral shall submit to the Philippine Legislature within ten days of the opening of each regular session a budget of receipts and expenditures, which shall be the basis of the annual appropriation bill." This provision and the fact that the Governor-General still retained, according to law, supreme executive power, created in the minds of some the doubt as to whether the Legislature would leave the framing of the budget entirely to the executive. The establishment, however, of a Cabinet largely responsible to the Legislature overcame the objection. But there was another difficulty. Under the Jones Law, it is the Governor-General who is to submit the budget. Should he, and not the Cabinet, draft the budget? In the former case, the Legislature might not be willing to give up its prerogative of preparing financial measures. Again, the Governor-General came to the rescue, and following the generous spirit of the Jones Law, delegated the formulation of the budget first to the Cabinet and later to the Council of State. The old practice of having bureau chiefs prepare and submit estimates was changed. Their estimates must now go to the Department of Finance for revision. The Governor-General, in a message, sends the budget as prepared by the Council of State to the Legislature for approval, amendment, or rejection. Before the preparation of the budget, a general line of policy is first agreed upon by the Council of State. Once the general policy is decided, a circular is sent in July to all offices and bureaus requesting them to send in their estimates, which should include the probable receipts and the proposed expenditures for the coming year. These estimates are made under the supervision and control of the department heads, who have the power to eliminate or add items. These different estimates are then submitted by the department heads to the Secretary of Finance not later than August 20 of every year. The main work of the Department of Finance is to coördinate the different departmental estimates in accordance with the general plan agreed upon at the council meeting. It often happens that a certain item submitted by a departmental head is already duplicated by another item from a different department. Any conflict between a departmental head and the Secretary of Finance is submitted to the Council of State for decision. The final budget is approved at a meeting of the Council. 158. Submission of the Budget to the Legislature. — Once the budget is definitely approved by the Council of State, the Governor-General submits it with a message to the Legislature. The message is read by the Secretary of Finance in a joint session of the Legislature. The lower House, by agreement with the upper, is the first one to take up the budget. It sets a date for the appear ance of the Secretary of Finance to explain the details of the budget and to answer all questions propounded by the members. The Secretary's statement usually takes a number of days, and full opportunity is given the members, especially those of the minority party, to discuss the several items of the bill. To explain further the details of the budget, the individual departmental secretaries may be called, although this is not often done, the Secretary of Finance generally assuming responsibility for the whole budget. It is the accepted rule in the discussion of the budget that the Legislature may diminish the estimates, but may not increase them. Once the budget is approved in principle, it is sent to the committee on appropriations with instructions to draft the appropriation bill in accordance with the budget.This committee again examines the different items of the budget, and then frames and submits its appropriation bill. The committee generally suggests in its bill only those changes that are absolutely necessary. When the appropriation bill is approved by the House, it is sent to the Senate, where the Secretary of Finance again appears to explain the different items contained therein. The general tendency of the Senate is to act as a sort of arbitrator of the differences between the Council of State and the House. The financial plan of the Council of State does not cover all the proposed financial activities of the Government. It usually leaves a surplus for the Legislature to appropriate in the way it pleases. This takes the form of new ventures and activities. The totality of the English budgetary principle is not, therefore, as yet followed, whereby all requests for money must come from the executive. But a long and decisive step has already been taken towards financial reform. |