REDUCING UNDERSPENDING

ANALIZA T. LISING

The Department of Education (DepEd) has made significant strides in arresting, albeit not completely, the decline in its budget utilization.

Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones enumerated the Department’s continuous efforts in reforming its internal procedures to judiciously allocate and spend its annual fund.

She said that while improvement is underway, DepEd still has its share of underspending. The Department is actually recovering from the decline in utilization in 2015.

Briones said that in the last five years, DepEd recorded the following budget utilization performance (BUR): 92% in 2012, 94% in 2013, 90% in 2014, and 88% in 2015. In 2016, half of which the current administration is accountable for, saw an increase at 90% as of August 31, 2017. This is 5% higher than the 85% BUR target for the year.

By definition of DepEd’s Office of the Undersecretary for Finance – Budget and Monitoring, “underspending refers to a government agency’s spending less than what was appropriated for its use as provided in the General Appropriations Act (GAA).”

It further stated that “for the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), underspending is the sum of ‘unreleased appropriations’and ‘unobligated allotments’. However, both components do not connote to underspending yet, as most of unreleased appropriations were released in the following year and some of the unobligated allotments were eventually obligated due to the two-year validity of appropriations.”

Secretary Briones also welcomed the support expressed by legislators to help DepEd curb roadblocks in operation and catch up with budget spending through the possible amendment of several laws.

Among the legislations that may need to be revisited are the Government Procurement Reform Act; Book Publishing Industry Development Act; Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines; Magna Carta for Public School Teachers; Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001; Guidance and Counselling Act of 2004; Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act; and Granting Priority to Residents of the Barangay, Municipality or City Where the School is Located, in the Appointment or Assignment of Classroom Public School Teachers. — oOo— The author is Teacher III at P. Luma Elementary School, Arayat, Pampanga