The Department of Budget Management (DBM) will present next week to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. its proposed amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) as the Senate started to scrutinize the proposed P5.768 trillion national budget for 2024.
The proposed budget for next year is higher by 9.5 percent compared to this year’s P5.268 trillion appropriation.
During the Senate finance committee briefing on the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), the senators quizzed Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on the government’s plan to address underspending.
“We don’t have the bill yet, but we have the specific amendments,” Pangandaman said.
Based on the DBM data, Pangandaman said the government’s underspending was pegged at P170.5 billion for the first semester of 2023.
She said the data was from the computation of the program disbursement which is at P2.582 trillion and the actual disbursement at P2.411 trillion for the first semester of 2023.
“We have steps to address government spending and budget utilization,” Pangandaman told the Senate Finance committee chaired by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara.
For government procurement, she said it is the only one that needs legislation and
“You know that during the SONA of the President, it was again mentioned to amend the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA)” Pangandaman said.
The GPRA was passed in 2003, while the Government Auditing Code was issued in 1978 by the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
In his second SONA, Marcos called for the passage of new procurement and auditing laws amid “changing times.”
Furthermore, the DBM noted that the 2024 budget seeks to “secure a future-proof and sustainable community.” It was designed to spur the country’s high-growth trajectory while the Philippines targets to attain upper-middle income status by 2025.
The social services sector will get the biggest budget of P2.183 trillion. This represents at least 37.9% of the proposed budget.
Included in the social services sector are health, education, culture, and manpower development, as well as social security, welfare, and employment.
The second with the largest budget are economic services (29.6%), general public services (15.5 percent), debt burden (12.1 percent), and defense (4.9 percent).
The DBM also identified the following priority sectors in the budget proposal. They are,Education (P924.7 billion), Public Works (P822.2 billion), Health (P306.1 billion), Interior and Local Government (P259.5 billion), Defense (P232.2 billion),Transportation (P214.3 billion), Social Welfare (P209.9 billion), Agriculture (P181.4 billion),Judiciary (P57.8 billion) and Labor and Employment (P40.5 billion).
Meanwhile, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa sought assurance from economic and finance managers that the Philippines can manage its outstanding debt.
She echoed the concerns of Filipinos on the country’s financial obligations, citing news reports on the estimated debt per capita.
Finance Sec. Benjamin Diokno said the country’s debt level remains “reasonable” and “manageable.”
He said they will continue its prudent debt management as it prioritizes domestic financing to prevent external vulnerabilities.
At the same time, he said the6 will continue the imposition of additional taxes. He also said th will coordinate with Congress to push for major reforms crucial to economic growth.