Gov’t catching up on spending

SPENDING by government departments and agencies was close to target as of end-May, even as the total was down from a year ago, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said in a statement yesterday.

Specifically, expenditures of these offices — excluding interest payments and net lending — totaled some P402.82 billion, making up about 91.98% of the P437.9 billion the DBM had allocated for spending as of May 31.

While the five-month total was an 8.7% dip from the P441.25 billion spent in the same period last year, the DBM noted that the 2010 amount included funds used at the height of preparations for the May 10 synchronized national and local elections.

“Departments and agencies are now catching up with their spending. With their catch-up plans in place, we expect further improvements in the months ahead,” Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said in the statement.

DBM identified the top eight spenders as of end-May as the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of National Defense (DND), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Health (DoH), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC).

Expenditures of these departments totaled some P201.98 billion, accounting for 50.14% of the total in the first five months.

But this amount was still a 20.5% drop from the P253.97 billion — making up some 57.56% of the total — they spent in the same period last year.

The top spenders which improved their disbursements were:

DSWD, whose spending grew 74.7% to P7.13 billion from P4.08 billion the year before;

DoH, up 14.7% to P8.04 billion from P7.01 billion;

DND, up 9.9% to P42.92 billion from P39.04 billion; and

DepEd, which was actually the biggest spender, whose expenditures grew by a nearly flat 0.9% to P74.53 billion from P73.86 billion last year.

The other departments on the list of top spenders, however, saw a dip in actual disbursements:

DPWH posted the biggest drop of 71.8% to P21.3 billion from P75.44 billion;

DA likewise spent 39.2% less at P7.2 billion from P11.84 billion;

DoTC, down 5.6% to P6.04 billion from P6.4 billion; and

DILG, which recorded a 4.1% dip to P34.84 billion from P36.31 billion.

Mr. Abad said that departments and agencies are expected to report progress in their catch-up plans during the Cabinet’s mid-year assessment of the 2011 national budget.

He had earlier warned that offices which fail to use funds disbursed to them risk having such funds reallocated to faster-moving government programs.

The DBM statement also noted that spending should jump later this year with budgetary releases scheduled for DepEd’s school-building project (P7 billion), DoH’s health insurance program (P5 billion) and DA’s National Rice Program (P3.43 billion).

The Budget department has programmed P1.237 trillion for the spending of government departments and agencies this year. A total of P474 billion is also allotted for the government’s interest payments and net lending, for a total of P1.711 trillion in expenditures. — D. C. J. Jiao, Businessworld