We do not know what is worse:  the misuse or the non-use of public funds.

If the business of government is the perpetual sourcing and use of funds, then the  government is guilty of the sin of omission.

No less than the President himself once declared that it was better that government funds were left untouched rather than misused or lost to corruption.

But if this is the policy, then this administration would not accomplish anything because money, like any other resource, should be tapped to fuel progress, not left idled.        

For instance, at least P308 million in public funds went down the drain due to non-implementation of foreign-funded infrastructure projects, aggravated by the failure of Congress and the national government to allocate counterpart funding.

The Commission on Audit said the amount represented the commitment fee or penalty the Department of Public Works and Highways has to pay because of its “slow availment” of official development assistance, the CoA panel said in a 2010 report.

Foreign lenders imposed the commitment fee amounting to P308,448,184.70, which was on top of interest charges on their loans for the infrastructure projects.

The panel indicated that at least 35 percent of the unnecessary expenses went to installation of bridges; 60 percent for road work, and the rest for dredging, water supply, sanitation, and waterways rehabilitation.

State auditors said that major contributors to the delay in project implementation were the belated procurement of goods and services; change in project scope, design and specification; land acquisition and resettlement, and late or non-release of counterpart funds.

“The first three factors are within the control of DPWH while the last factor needs coordination with the Congress of the Philippines and the Department of Budget and Management,” the CoA was quoted by a broadsheet as saying.

In previous audit findings, the CoA asked the DPWH to address the cause of delays in the implementation of foreign-funded public works projects that have bloated the cost to over P10 billion in the past three years alone.

The DPWH Project Management Office countered that many projects, particularly under the multi-billion peso President’s Bridges Program, were implemented “at lesser or at no extra cost to government “.

The DPWH-PMO noted that hundreds of millions of pesos were saved by government when it completed the bridges program.