Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has directed government agencies to submit catch-up plans following the below-programmed spending in the first half of 2023. The directive was issued Aug. 9 by Pangandaman through Circular Letter 2023-10 after the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed that government spending in the first six months of this year reached PHP2.411 trillion, which is PHP170.5 billion, or 6.6 percent, below the PHP2.582 trillion programmed for the period. Compared to the end-June 2022 level, government expenditures as of end-June this year rose by 0.42 percent compared to last year’s PHP2.401 trillion. In a statement, Pangandaman pointed out that this year’s PHP5.268 trillion national budget ‘was enacted to fund programs, activities, and projects (PAPs) in support of the country’s economic transformation with the overarching goal of inclusive and sustainable growth.’ She added that this year’s spending target is aimed to help achieve the government’s 6-7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth target for the year. ‘Given the sizeable FY 2023 national budget, government agencies shall execute their programs and projects as authorized in the annual budget and deliver planned results in a timely manner to help buttress robust economic growth,’ she said. Although initial fiscal data traced the below-target spending to ongoing projects and program implementation of the various government agencies, as well as the ‘billings or payment concerns or issues’, the Budget chief stressed that ‘there is a need to ascertain the underlying causes or reasons for the underperformance and undertake measures to address them.’ ‘As what I would always emphasize, we consider budget utilization rates (BURs) in evaluating the absorptive capacity of agencies. We view low utilization rate as the agency’s limited capacity to utilize new funds. However, those agencies who need to increase their utilization rates have promised to produce catch-up plans during the budget deliberations. So, we hope that their BURs will increase by then,’ Pangandaman said.
Source: Philippines News Agency
