Government agencies use 83% of NCAs as of May

MANILA, Philippines — State agencies utilized 83 percent of their notices of cash allocation (NCA) in the first five months of the year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said.

In its latest disbursement report, the DBM said 83 percent or P1.085 trillion worth of NCAs has been used up by implementing agencies from January to May out of the P1.31 trillion NCAs released during the period.

This leaves P227.85 billion worth of NCAs yet to be used from those already released by the DBM.

For the second quarter alone, the government has already spent P479.01 billion as of end-May, representing 68.9 percent of the P694.97 billion issued for the quarter.

 NCAs are needed by agencies to claim from the Bureau of the Treasury checks that can be used to pay for public projects and services. Once utilized, funds are deemed disbursed and are recorded on the government balance sheet.

Earlier, the DBM said NCA requirements for agencies’ current operations expenses are already released in the first month of every quarter, unlike in the past when it was issued on a monthly basis.

Additional NCA for accounts payables will be released based on evaluation of agencies’ requests.

As such, the DBM’s disbursement report now reflects NCAs utilized on a quarterly and year-to-date basis.

Based on data from the DBM, national government spending as of-end April amounted to P1.033 trillion, 29 percent higher than the P798.4 billion recorded in the same period last year.

This, however, fell short of the P1.036 trillion target for the period. The Department of Finance earlier said this shortfall represents the government’s savings in interest payments, which amounted only P120.3 billion instead of P123.8 billion as programmed.

For 2018, government disbursements are targeted to reach P3.313 trillion.

On a quarterly basis, the government is programmed to spend P813.32 billion in the second quarter covering April to June.