Aggressive spending will continue – DBM

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will continue its aggressive spending this year even as it encourages private sector investment to further perk up the local economy.

“The strong disbursement performance in the first quarter is expected to be sustained in the coming months,” the DBM said in its report.

According to the DBM, the agencies’ spending performance against their monthly cash programs (MCPs) show encouraging signs.

 â€œThey are being monitored, especially for the AMT-guided departments so that necessary revisions/updates may be considered in the operating fiscal program,” the DBM said in a report assessing the government’s performance as of end-March this year.

Government disbursement requirements will be facilitated for the rest of the year even with the impact of the election ban in the second quarter, the DBM pointed out.

Of the P2.006 trillion obligation program for 2013 (inclusive of Automatic Appropriations), P1.417 trillion has already been released in the first quarter, of which P915.1 billion was for regular operating requirements and implementation of programs and projects of departments/agencies.

About P302.3 million had also been released for the full year alloment for Local Government Units while P98.3 billion was paid for interest payments, P28 billion for requirements of Retirement and Life Insurance Premium (RLIP) of

government personnel, and P24.1 billion for retirement benefits, P9.2 billion for congressional allocations and P6.4 billion for budgetary support to GOCCs.

To fully maximize the relatively comfortable cash position of the government, the DBM adopted a measure to fully support all list of due and demandable accounts payable (LDDAP) with cash under the direct payment scheme.

Given this, DBM’s operations bureaus and regional offices will be able to issue notices of cash allocation to cover LDDAP’s received  from agencies.

Government spending for infrastructure and capital outlay jumped 50.1 percent in the first quarter to P58.1 billion. This, along with improved spending for maintenance and other operating expenditures (MOOE), which expanded by 25.1 percent to P70.4 billion as of March, helped push first-quarter disbursements to P430.8 billion.  The amount is  9.1 percent higher than  the previous year.

Disbursements amounted to P148.8 billion in March alone, up 3.3 percent from the year earlier level.