DISBURSEMENTS to government agencies accelerated early in the year, providing early warning of ramped-up public spending that will support growth, though the disbursement growth rate has room to improve, the Budget secretary said.
Commenting on the January cash operations report released by the Bureau of the Treasury, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said that the 15% disbursement growth rate has room to improve even though it more than doubled from the January 2017 rate of 6.67%.
“Nababagalan pa ako diyan (I find that slow),” Mr. Diokno said. “The size of the budget has quadrupled… we are making up for past neglect. Historically the infrastructure to GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is about 2.6% only, but now we are at 6.1%,” Mr. Diokno told reporters on the sidelines of the Procurement Summit held last week in Quezon City.
“The disbursement rate will rise following an S-curve yan eh. When the fiscal year starts, it usually slows down but then it will accelerate,” he added.
The government’s fiscal year corresponds to the calendar year.
Asked about the February performance of disbursements, Mr. Diokno said: “Higher than 15%,” noting the impact of salary adjustments alone.”
He added that the first quarter disbursement growth should be under 20%
Mr. Diokno said because of the spending developments, growth targets will be “kayang-kaya (easily attainable).”
The government targets 7-8% GDP growth this year until 2022.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee has set a P3.313-trillion expenditure target for 2018, up 17.31% from the actual P2.824 trillion spent in 2017.
Mr. Diokno noted that large-scale infrastructure projects are currently in procurement for the Department of Transportation (DoTr) including the North-South Commuter Railway, airport projects in Tacloban and Zamboanga, and the Metro Manila subway.
“We are the procurement agent. We do the dirty work then we give it to the DoTr. DoTr will still be in charge but we did the processing so it’s faster now.” — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

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