Cash allocations hit P3 trillion in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines — Notices of cash allocation (NCAs) released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) rose by nine percent to nearly P3 trillion in the first nine months from P2.72 trillion a year ago as state agencies improved the usage of their respective budgets.

Of the amount, state agencies have spent a total of P2.81 trillion, leaving close to P141 billion in unused funds sitting idle in government offices.

Most of the national agencies have recorded above 90 percent usage of their NCAs.

Broken down, roughly 70 percent of the NCAs at P2.06 trillion went to line departments, while the remaining 30 percent at P896.12 billion were deployed as budgetary support to local governments and government-owned and controlled corporations.

Among line departments, the Department of Transportation recorded a 100 percent utilization of its P45.91 billion worth of NCAs.

The Judiciary’s P31.42 billion and the Commission on Audit’s P9.23 billion were also used up in full, as well as the Office of the Ombudsman’s P3.09 billion and the Civil Service Commission’s P1.28 billion.

Local governments, who need as much funds as they can for down the line programs to roll out, also posted a 100 percent utilization of their NCAs amounting to P674.7 billion.

On the contrary, the Department of Information and Communications Technology registered the worst utilization among all departments at 59 percent of P7.99 billion in NCAs. The Office of the President came in next, at 71 percent of its P6.52 billion, followed by the Department of Energy, at 76 percent of its P1.38 billion.

NCAs are released to line departments credited through the modified disbursement scheme and government servicing banks. State agencies then are mandated to use the NCAs to pay for the cash requirements of their programs and projects.

Further, an agency can utilize an NCA when it issues a check or advice to debit account (ADA) against the NCAs issued.

Cash disbursement refers to negotiated checks and to the ADA credited to the bank accounts of the agency’s creditors and payees, while outstanding checks relate to checks released but have yet to be encashed by the recepient.