Public infra spending up 3.7% to P176.2 B in 8 mos

MANILA, Philippines - Public infrastructure spending rose by only 3.7 percent in the first eight months of the year to P176.2 billion, reflecting the government’s failure to invest heavily in high-impact projects and programs.

This brings total government disbursements to P1.3 trillion from January to August, an increase of 6.1 percent or P74.5 billion over the same period last year.  

In August alone, total government spending increased by 5.4 percent.

For this year, the government expects total disbursements to reach P2.28 trillion.  

“Aside from the social services and education sectors, our socio-economic plan is dedicated to pouring investments toward infrastructure development. That’s why we’ve been continuously expanding our budget for infrastructure since we came in, with a set target of five percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2016,” Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said.

“This goal is also supported by the budget reforms that we’ve instituted this year. For one, the GAA-as-release document reform ensures that funds are sufficiently made available to agencies for their respective programs and projects at the start of the year,” Abad said.

Poor infrastructure has often been cited as a major reason why the Philippines continues to lag behind most of its Asian neighbors in terms of attracting foreign direct investments.

Public infrastructure spending in the Philippines currently stands below three percent of the country’s total economic output.

By 2016, the government intends to spend at least the equivalent of five percent GDP on infrastructure.

Abad reported that total allotments released to implementing agencies reached P2.05 trillion or about 91 percent of the total obligation program for the year. Agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) recorded significant increases in allotment releases with 31.1 percent and 83.3 percent respectively for various infrastructure development projects, among others.

He also expressed confidence in improving the spending pace through the creation of new positions under Bids and Awards Committees (BAC) in key departments.

The hiring of additional procurement personnel aims to substantially improve the performance of agencies in terms of their procurement activities.

“We’ve been working with key implementing agencies to clear the bottlenecks in the procurement process. By opening up these new positions in the various bids and awards committees, procurement activities can proceed faster and more efficiently. Measures like this should facilitate further improvement in public expenditures and allow us to jumpstart procurement for next year,” Abad said.