State agencies told to ramp up spending

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has urged government agencies to further ramp up their budget disbursement and spending as the utilization rate of the state firms reached 90 percent from January to April.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman reminded government agencies to avoid underspending amid the limited fiscal space of the national government.

“Again, we need to instill discipline in our national government agencies or we shall put the money into agencies which can really implement them. We have to remember, as early as the start of the year, we have emphasized that only implementation-ready proposals will be included in the 2024 budget,” Pangandaman said.

Based on the report on utilization of notices of cash allocations (NCAs) for national government agencies and budgetary support to government-owned or controlled corporations and local government units, the 90-percent utilization rate is equivalent to P1.175 trillion.

NCAs are cash authority documents issued by the DBM to the account of agencies or operating units through the authorized government servicing banks to cover the cash requirements of the agencies for their programs and projects.

“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,” Pangandaman added.

As of end-April, the DBM has released P2.982 trillion or 94.8 percent of the total agency-specific budget to various national government agencies.

The DBM has released P4.518 trillion or 85.8 percent of the P5.268 trillion national budget as of April 30, 2023.