Efficient budgeting

The House of Representatives has resumed deliberations on the P3.757-trillion national budget proposed by Malacañang for 2019. The chamber had suspended discussions with the Department of Budget and Management in protest against the cash-based budgeting that the DBM had introduced for the first time.

To break the impasse, the House and Malacañang agreed on a hybrid system, combining cash-based and obligation-based budgeting. President Duterte had to meet with Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to break the stalemate.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno pushed for cash-based budgeting to promote a more efficient system of fund utilization, speed up the implementation of projects and programs and reduce underspending.

Congressmen, who initially went along with the cash-based budgeting, said the country is not ready for the kind of fund utilization efficiency envisioned by Diokno, which requires incurring obligations and disbursing payments for goods and services only within the fiscal year. They complained that their constituencies could suffer as a result. When both sides refused to budge, the President stepped in.

Even as lawmakers protested, a number of them acknowledged that cash-based budgeting would promote a more judicious use of public money compared with the traditional system, which allows two years for obligations and appropriations. But the lawmakers want the shift to be gradual, allowing government agencies to prepare for the full implementation possibly in 2020.

Whether lawmakers can keep this objective is uncertain. A new set of lawmakers will be elected next year, and will have to decide again whether the country is ready for more efficient budgeting and fund utilization. The DBM must sustain its thrust. Any effort to promote the judicious use of public funds is worth pursuing.