PLANNING AND budget officers, accountants, and ministers of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) gathered Monday in Cotabato City for the new region’s first budget forum in preparation for its 2020 funding proposal. The meeting covered guidelines, priorities, policies, and budget preparation forms based on the national government’s cash-based budgeting system. “Under this system, all government programs and projects budgeted for the fiscal year should be implemented and delivered within the same fiscal year,” according to the Department of Budget and Management. “We need concrete plans of our budget proposal for the year 2020,” BARMM Minister of Finance and Budget and Management Eduard U. Guerra said in a statement. The budget proposals, due on Aug. 30, will be deliberated on by the BARMM Parliament and the regional government will no longer present and defend it before Congress, Mr. Guerra explained. The budget proposal will be anchored on the BARMM’s 12-point priority agenda, which covers the following:

• Enactment of priority bills;

• Integration of development plans;

• Establishment of appropriate bureaucracy;

• Continuity of existing government services;

• Special programs for transitioning combatants;

• Support for the ongoing Marawi rehabilitation;

• Development of enabling policy environment;

• Activation of job-generating industries;

• Enhancement of security;

• Maximizing synergistic partnerships;

• Ensure environmental compliance; and,

• Exploration of the Bangsamoro economic potentials.

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