MANILA, Philippines — Government agencies utilized 96.6 percent of their notices of cash allocation (NCA) as of end-September, while the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had the largest amount of unused NCAs at P59.19 billion.
Data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed that NCAs grew by 7.5 percent to nearly P4 trillion as of end-September from P3.72 trillion in the same period last year.
Even with the increase, government agencies recorded a slightly lower utilization rate of 96.6 percent from 97.3 percent in the nine months in 2025.
This means that of the total releases, P3.86 trillion has been utilized and some P136.5 billion was unused as of end-September.
NCAs are disbursement orders by the DBM to government banks servicing the release of funds to agencies. State agencies are expected to use the NCAs to pay for the cash requirements of their programs and projects.
Line departments, which received the bulk of the releases, registered a utilization rate of 95.2 percent from 96.6 percent last year. They used P2.6 trillion of the P2.73 trillion released.
This leaves P130.6 billion in NCAs for the period.
By department, the DPWH had the biggest unused NCAs as of end-September.
The DPWH recorded a utilization rate of 86.7 percent from 95.6 percent last year. It used P386.07 billion of the P445.26 billion released.
The DPWH is facing stricter scrutiny over the release and use of funds after being embroiled in multibillion-peso irregularities in flood control projects, which prompted an overhaul of its leadership and budget and even procurement processes.
The Department of Education (DepEd) received the largest allocation among departments at P624.3 billion, of which P601.57 billion or 96.4 percent had been utilized.
Those that had full utilization rates include the judiciary, Commission on Audit, Commission on Elections, Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Human Rights.
Among agencies with lower utilization rates is the Department of Agriculture, which posted an 84.8 percent rate after using P70.11 billion of its P82.64-billion NCA allocation.
Others are the Department of Information and Communications Technology (85.1 percent rate), Civil Service Commission (81.4 percent), Office of the President (76.3 percent) and Presidential Communications Office (75.3 percent).