Govt plans to spend 2011 funds next year

THE government is looking at adding the bulk of this year’s unspent budget to next year’s budget to make up for its weak spending in 2011, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said Friday.

That means the government is unsure if it will be able to use all the P1.645 trillion that it had planned to spend to boost the economy this year. Slow project start-ups resulting from stringent project reviews, for instance, hampered the Public Works Departments’ spending in the first half of the year.

“It [the unspent budget] can either be carried-over to next year’s GAA [General Appropriations Act] or we can book them as savings,” Abad said.

The government had assumed that the budget shortfall would hit P300 billion this year when it appropriated P1.645 trillion for 2011, but the budget gap had amounted to only P52.99 billion—or P23 percent of the deficit ceiling—as of the end of September.

“There will be less unspent funds next year,” Abad said.

“It must be emphasized that we are not operating this year solely on the 2011 [appropriations] as we made several zero-based budgeting using last year’s budget.”

Abad said that for as long as the unreleased budget was in the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses item, the fund could still be used next year. But the government could no longer spend the unused budget in 2010, which would now be booked as savings.

And the unspent money for the government’s procurement service, or the money meant to buy goods and equipment this year, would not be carried over next year.

“Procurement service funds expire this year, hence we can no longer utilize such funds for the succeeding year,” Abad said.  –Elaine R. Alanguilan, Manila Standard Today