NATIONAL GOVERNMENT agencies used 98% of their budget allocations in the first quarter, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.
The utilization rate tops the year-earlier rate of 93%.
Utilization rates are based on the Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA) — a quarterly disbursement authority issued by the DBM to government agencies, allowing them to withdraw funds from the Bureau of the Treasury to pay for contracted projects.
A total of P606.33 billion was spent by government offices during the period out of the P618.23 billion the DBM authorized them to disburse, leaving a balance of P11.90 billion.
In the first quarter of 2017 agencies spent P453.52 billion out of P485.72 billion released, with P32.20 billion left unutilized.
Ten out of the 36 agencies recorded a 100% utilization rate — the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Foreign Affairs, Interior and Local Government, Public Works and Highways, Trade and Industry, as well as the Judiciary, Commission on Elections, Office of the Ombudsman, and the Commission on Human Rights.
A year earlier four government offices had full utilization over the same period.
Nine agencies also approached 100% the Office of the Vice-President, the departments of Agrarian Reform, Education, Information and Communication Technology, Justice, National Defense, and Science and Technology; State Universities and Colleges, the Civil Service Commission, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Special Purpose Funds such as Budgetary Support to Government Owned and Controlled Corporations, Allotment to Local Government Units were likewise fully utilized.
The DBM, however, recorded the lowest utilization ratio at 77% during the period.
The Budget department has said that improved government spending was attributable to its shift to a cash-based appropriation scheme beginning 2017, which limits all payments for contractual obligations within a fiscal year — compared to an obligation-based appropriation previously that allows payments to extend by over two years after a given fiscal year.
The government has a P3.767-trillion budget this year, with 84% or P3.165 trillion released as of the first quarter, leaving a balance of P601.67 billion. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan
