DBM to state agencies: Speed up spending plans  

MANILA, Philippines —  The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has given state agencies until mid-September to create their spending catch-up plans amid the continued low budget utilization that is now impacting economic growth.

In a circular letter, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman ordered agencies to submit their catch-up plans no later than Sept. 15 to facilitate budget execution for the rest of the year.

The letter was addressed to all agencies and departments, state universities and colleges, state-owned corporations, and local government units.

This comes as the cash operations report for the first semester showed that the budget gap shrank to P552 billion as revenue collections exceeded targets.

On the downside, government spending barely moved by less than a percentage to P2.41 trillion. This is also 6.6 percent short of the P2.58-trillion programmed spending set by the economic team for the period.

Given the record P5.268-trillion 2023 budget, Pangandaman argued that agencies should execute their programs as authorized in the annual budget and deliver planned results in a timely manner to help buttress robust economic growth.

Preliminary data showed that the slow utilization was due to the ongoing implementation of programs by line agencies as well as billing or payment concerns and issues encountered.

Nonetheless, Pangandaman said there is a need to ascertain the underlying causes for the underperformance and undertake measures to address them.

“We consider budget utilization rates in evaluating the absorptive capacity of agencies. We view low utilization rate as the agency’s limited capacity to utilize new funds,” she explained.

As such, agencies were instructed to conduct data analysis on a periodic basis for the identification of agency programs and projects with historical trends of low disbursement rates and those with anticipated delays, among others.

This is to compare actual performance versus specified measures and targets and identify leading indicators for each program, sub-program and project to signal the need for catch-up plans for delays or underperformance.

Agencies were also asked to come up with delivery and execution strategies to address actual implementation bottlenecks and delays of programs.

Apart from the catch-up plans, state agencies were ordered to submit to the DBM the latest available financial and physical accomplishments and the status of major flagship programs in 2022 and 2023.

“These measures are to ensure efficiency in budget utilization to achieve maximum benefits and high multiplier effects for the economy,” Pangandaman said.