Budget dep’t threatens to deny funding in 2024 to underspending agencies

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said government agencies need to ramp up their spending after noting the slower pace of budget utilization.

“We want to remind our agencies to avoid underspending, given our very limited fiscal space. Again, we need to instill discipline in our National Government agencies or we shall put the money into agencies which can really implement them,” Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said in a statement.

“As early as the start of the year, we emphasized that only implementation-ready proposals will be included in the 2024 budget,” she added.

At the end of April, the budget utilization rate was at 90%, equivalent to P1.18 trillion worth of notices of cash allocation (NCAs) issued during the period. This was behind the 92% pace set a year earlier.

Unused allocations totaled P128.07 billion at the end of April.

NCAs are a quarterly disbursement authority that the DBM issues to agencies, which allows them to withdraw funds from the Treasury to support their spending needs.

The DBM had released 85.8% or P4.52 trillion of the 2023 national budget at the end of April, leaving P749.85 billion for the remainder of the year.

This was slightly ahead of the year-earlier pace of 85.6%.

Releases to government agencies and departments totaled P2.98 trillion, or 94.8%.

“We all know that our national budget is the lifeblood of all government programs and projects. The faster we disburse and utilize our funds, the faster we can procure and implement our projects,” Ms. Pangandaman added. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson