A GOVERNMENT think tank said a foreign expert is calling for a review of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to ensure that only the intended beneficiaries receive the cash.
The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), in a statement, yesterday quoted Nanak Kakwani, a poverty expert from the University of New South Wales, as saying that the government should ensure only the poor benefit from the CCT, or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
“You have to slow down the program because you are still learning,” Mr. Kakwani said.
He said a pause may give the government breathing room to reassess its targeting mechanism.
Mr. Kakwani took the same position with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which suspended the registration of new CCT beneficiaries in July 2016.
A 2017 Performance Audit Report of the Commission on Audit also recommended maintaining the suspension until the DSWD upgrades its information and technology systems to better identify ineligible beneficiaries.
A 2015 PIDS study noted that the CCT had a 29% leakage rate, meaning about three in every 10 CCT beneficiaries are not poor and do not deserve to be part of the program.
They are selected through a survey of their access to basic needs, known as the National Household Targeting System.
This year, the government allotted P89.4 billion for the CCT program, covering over four million beneficiaries.
The government has said that a national identification system would help plug the leakages.
Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno expects to roll out the ID system this year, after the measure won approval in both chambers of Congress, and is awaiting the ratification of a bicameral conference committee report.
A World Bank study said that the program has led to a reduction in poverty of 1.4 percentage points per year or about 1.5 million fewer poor individuals.
