The need for a ‘cost and efficiency czar’

The world knows that United States president-elect Donald Trump has appointed ”centibillionaire” Elon Musk as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, an eponymous take of his favorite cryptocurrency Doge coin. Musk’s task is to tackle government bureaucracy, regulations, and federal spending. Thus, he’s being touted as “efficiency czar.”

Taking a cue from this news, perhaps, it may not hurt our current administration to conduct a study on the scope and details of its functions. Even the idea of its inception, should already prompt interest from some of our leaders. It may not sound new to us since in the past, some appointees asked to head certain Cabinet posts were former CEOs, presidents, or executives from private firms. There may be something unique in its setup and system.

It may be worthwhile to try and adopt it here. Implementing it first in one particular department should be a good pilot start—the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Everything from budgeting, planning, bidding and cost review, rollout and time frame, monitoring, project completion, and buy-off, must pass through the scrutiny of what I call the “cost and efficiency czar.” The key difference between ours and the US is cost, knowing that the latter has no reputation for corruption.

Now, the person that comes to mind is none other than billionaire Ramon S. Ang of the conglomerate San Miguel Corp. His renowned reputation and experience in infrastructure business perfectly fit well with the position. Being one of the country’s richest and with most of his infra projects not related to DPWH, “conflict of interest” shouldn’t be an issue. More so, on corruption.

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JEROME L. ESCOBEDO,

Lapu-Lapu, Cebu