Gov’t fund utilization rate slips to 97.1% in Q2

FUND USAGE by national government agencies declined in the second quarter, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.

The Notice of Cash Allocations (NCA) utilization rate slowed to 97.1% in the three months to June from 98.1% a quarter earlier.

The second-quarter result was better than the year-earlier NCA utilization rate of 94.6%.

The NCA is a quarterly disbursement authority issued by the DBM to government agencies, allowing them to withdraw funds from the Bureau of the Treasury to pay for contracted projects.

Government agencies used P739.54 billion of the P768.19 billion worth of NCA releases, with P28.65 billion left unused — against the P11.91 billion in unutilized NCAs in the first quarter.

In the first half of the year, national government agencies disbursed a total of P1.35 trillion worth of NCAs of the P1.39 trillion the DBM released.

This left a balance of P40.55 billion worth of unused NCAs.

The Commission on Elections and the Office of the Obmudsman logged a 100% utilization ratio in the first six months of the year.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Judiciary posted utilization rates of 99.9%; the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao 99.7%; the Department of Public Works and Highways 99.6%; and Department of Interior and Local Government 99.5%.

The National Economic and Development Authority had the lowest NCA utilization rate in the first half at 58.4%, with P1.83 billion worth of NCAs.

It was followed by “other executive offices” with a 67.6% utilization ratio, amounting to P9.34 billion unused NCAs. The DBM had a 78.4% budget utilization rate, leaving P356.64 million unused. —