Economic team bares public management reform roadmap

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos yesterday vowed to cut bureaucratic processes and ensure a more efficient and transparent delivery of services, as economic managers endorsed the Philippine Public Financial Management (PFM) Reforms Roadmap 2024-2028, a framework for promoting fiscal discipline while improving government systems.

Speaking during the endorsement of the roadmap at Malacañang, Marcos pointed out that it is one thing to create policies, and another to ensure they are properly implemented and with “real, tangible results” felt by ordinary Filipinos.

With the roadmap, the government gives a clear mandate of ensuring that public funds serve a purpose that truly matters and would make a difference, he added.

“It is about swift, efficient disaster relief and response actions so that no community is left behind when disasters strike. It is about better public health care access, ensuring that medical costs do not become yet another burden for our citizens. It is about expanding social services, creating not just a safety net, but opportunities for every Filipino to succeed, no matter what their circumstances may be,” the president said.

“In this new PFM, we are committed to synchronize planning and budgeting at our local, regional and national levels as well as streamlining our institutional frameworks to reduce the time spent on bureaucratic processes. Because the faster we move, the faster we deliver our services to our people,” he added.

He said an endorsement of the PFM is a reaffirmation of the government’s collective resolve “to build a system that serves not just the present, but the future of every Filipino.”

“With the strong support of our partners, especially with the ADB (Asian Development Bank), I am confident that the PFM Reforms Roadmap – anchored on the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 – will lead the nation to a higher growth trajectory, and ultimately, to reducing poverty and achieving genuine prosperity,” the Chief Executive said.

The roadmap, which carried the theme “Propelling Transformation: Achieving Prosperity,” outlines the government’s PFM reform strategy. It weaves together initiatives designed to ensure a cohesive and effective collaboration throughout the bureaucracy.

“My colleagues in the national and local governments as well as our development partners, this roadmap is not just about figures and systems, and structures, and plans and charts. It is about embracing innovation and using that to our advantage in order to provide more efficient (and) more streamlined services to the public,” Marcos said.

In a statement, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the roadmap includes a strategic plan to expedite the development of an integrated financial management information system to ensure seamless and efficient government transactions.

The plan also seeks to promote synchronized planning and to establish budgeting linkages at all levels of government to ensure alignment of priorities, streamline cash management policies and standardize internal auditing guidance.

The roadmap likewise aims to address 11 core strategic focus areas, namely planning and budgeting linkage, cash management, public asset management, accounting and auditing, PFM capacity development, digital PFM, PFM policy and legal framework, public procurement, disaster risk reduction and management, PFM for local government units, and monitoring and evaluation for public expenditure.

“The development of the PFM Reforms Roadmap 2024-2028 also involved an inclusive and collaborative consultative process among oversight and implementing agencies at the national and regional levels, local government units and civil society organizations. These include Asian Development Bank representatives who provided technical assistance to the PFM Committee,” the budget department said.

The development of the roadmap was in line with Executive Order 29 issued by Marcos in June 2023.

Through the EO, he instructed the PFM committee to strengthen the public financial management information systems and streamline its processes.

The committee consisted of the Department of Budget and Management, and representatives of the Commission on Audit, Bureau of the Treasury, Department of Finance, Department of Information and Communications Technology and the National Economic and Development Authority.