Purisima orders DOF to clear policy moves with Dominguez team

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima has instructed Department of Finance (DOF) officials to clear all policy actions with the transition team of incoming Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

"This is to ensure smooth transition," the outgoing Finance chief said.

The policy actions include the discussions on the budget deficit and other programmed amounts, the development of implementing rules and regulations (IRRs), and the ongoing work on tax reform studies to advance policy guidance in the remaining weeks of the transition period.

Purisima asked all concerned officials to complete staff work on the tax reform studies so the new Finance chief can review, revise, and finalize the document according to his policy priorities.

Dominguez must review and approve the IRRs of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, the Tax Incentives Monitoring and Transparency Act, and the Microfinance NGOs Act, Purisima noted.

"When we in the DOF say public service is a relay race, we mean it. We don’t drop the baton when our time is up only for the next team to start over. Operationalizing professionalism means that our job until the end of June is to make life as easy as possible for the incoming team to hit the ground running on day one," he said.

The outgoing DOF team has given to the Dominguez team a comprehensive manual of key information about the department as well as an updated fiscal and economic data book.

"We hope to give the incoming economic team all the information and resources they need to have an even more successful six years than we had. Their success is our success," Purisima said. – Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News