DBM says no more lump sum funds

MANILA, Philippines - Government agencies are no longer allowed to request for lump sum funds from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the agency’s top official said yesterday.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the DBM will not entertain lump sum funds that departments and agencies will submit as part of their proposed agency budgets for 2012.

“The Aquino government wants to move towards budgeting that enables the people to inspect each and every detail of how the government intends to spend their money. For this reason, we will gradually move away from the often-shadowy practice of lump sum budgeting,” Abad said.

He said the department has started the process of preparing the 2012 National Budget early, with this year’s budget approved on time.

“This should give ample time to all departments and agencies to flesh out their proposed budgets into programs and projects to be funded, location of projects and amounts allocated. This promotes transparency and allows agencies to measure outcomes of their spending,” he said.

The DBM, the agency that oversees the spending of the government, has issued the 2012 National Budget Call which fleshes out the budget preparation framework and process.

The department said it conducted a National Budget Fora within the DBM and with departments, agencies, government-owned or controlled corporations and government financial institutions. The aim of the fora was to brief the different agencies on the revised budget process.

The 2012 National Budget Call or “first budget call” fleshes out the budget preparation framework and process, including the budget preparation calendar, the DBM said.

The budget department will have a “second budget call” to be issued next month which will set the indicative budget ceilings and macroeconomic assumptions.

A provision in the 2012 Budget Call stated that “For the furtherance of transparency, lump sum funds within agency proposals as a policy will not be allowed in the FY (fiscal year) 2012 Budget.”

It further states in item 6.5.2 (Guide to Department/Agency Budget Formulation and Resource Allocation, Department Ceilings for FY 2012) that “onsistent with the performance-based budgeting approach, the indicative budget ceiling may be adjusted based on demonstrated absorptive capacity in relation to the agency MFOs (major final outputs).”

It shall be fully disaggregated into specific projects according to geographic coverage/location/beneficiaries, in the spirit of transparency and for better monitoring.”