DOF putting up P4.5-B building along Roxas Boulevard

MANILA, Philippines - A new 20-story building will soon rise along Roxas Boulevard in Manila as the new home of the Department of Finance (DOF), which has earmarked P4.5 billion in taxpayers’ money for the project expected to be completed by 2017.

The Finance department, which shares a lot at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Complex, has already awarded the contract to design its new office building to the group of architect Felino Palafox Jr., according to Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran.

“We are looking forward. Some offices, like the MIS (management information systems), are already crowded so we need new spaces and offices,” Beltran said in an interview. “We won’t fit in this building anymore,” he added.

The new building, he said, will be situated beside the present one, which has six floors shared by the different portfolios under DOF namely the Domestic Finance Group, International Finance Group, Corporate Affairs Group, Privatization and Management Group and Revenue Operations Group.

Under the plan, the new building will house the Office of the Secretary, currently located at the sixth floor of the DOF building. It will be joined by the offices of the commissioners of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Customs, the two primary revenue collecting agencies of the government.

At present, the commissioners’ offices are located at their bureaus’ respective head offices: in Quezon City for the BIR and in Port Area in Manila for Customs.

Beltran said the new office will also have a space for the Bureau of Treasury, particularly its cash management system which would allow a timely reconciliation of spending and revenue figures among agencies.

“The target is to complete the building in two years. We already have a MYOA from the DBM (Department of Budget and Management),” he explained.

A MYOA or a multi-year obligational authority allows a government agency to undertake projects that take more than one year to complete. It assures the availability of funds on succeeding budgets of the government.

The DOF has been at its present building since 1995.