Gov’t releases 96% of P3 T budget to state agencies

The government released 95.9 percent of its P3.001 trillion budget to state agencies in 2016, the Department of Budget and Management ( DBM) reported over the weekend.

Preliminary data from the DBM showed that about P2.877 trillion of the country’s total budget were allocated last year.

Of this amount, P1.567 trillion was released to departments and other agencies. This accounted for 96.8 percent of their P1.62- trillion program under the General Appropriations Act.

Twenty-five of the agencies, including the Department of Social and Welfare Development, Commission on Elections, Commission on Higher Education, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, have already acquired their entire outlays.

Almost all offices had over 90 percent allotment rates, while the Climate Change Commission, Department of National Defense and the Presidential Communications Operations Office received 79 to 88 percent of their allot- ments.

About 76.1 percent of P343.31 billion of the Special Purpose Funds ( SPFs) have also been released, according to the DBM data. SPFs are lump-sum allocations for specific purposes.

The remaining allotments – P896.87 billion – were released in the form of automatic appropriations. These include debt payments, tax expenditures, grants and pensions, among others. Once allotments are released, state agencies and offices are now allowed to enter into contracts so funds may be obligated.

They must secure a notice of cash allocation, before they can redeem their checks from the Bureau of the Treasury to pay for their contracted services.

Earlier, the DBM said it expects allotted funds to be mostly utilized at the end of 2016.

“Given the spending behavior of agencies to accelerate implementation before the closing of books, this could further boost the disbursements in December to surpass the 8.8 percent year-on-year growth recorded in 2015,” the agency said in an earlier statement.