The cash utilization rate of government agencies is at 95 percent as of August, data released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed.
According to the status of notice of cash allocation (NCA) utilization posted on the DBM website, the utilization rate in the first eight months of 2022 was faster than the 91 percent posted in the same period in 2021.
The NCA utilization rate in January to August 2022 corresponds to P2.64 trillion out of the P2.79 trillion in NCAs released for the period.
The unutilized NCAs for the period totaled to P151.38 billion.
In the same period in 2021, the NCAs utilized was P2.45 trillion.
NCA refers to the disbursement authority issued by the DBM to cover the cash requirements of the operations, programs and projects of government agencies.
A higher NCA utilization rate demonstrates the capacity of line agencies to quickly disburse their allocated funds and implement their programs and projects.
Line departments utilized P1.79 trillion of the P1.93 trillion in NCAs released to them as of August, equivalent to a 93 percent NCA utilization rate.
As for NCA released for budgetary support to government-owned and -controlled corporations, 94 percent was utilized, while 100 percent of the NCA released for allotment to local government units was utilized during the eight-month period.
Meanwhile, budget chief Amenah Pangandaman said yesterday that there are no “for-later-release” (FLR) funds in the proposed national government budget for 2023.
During the second day of the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s briefing on the 2023 National Expenditure Program in the senate, Pangandaman said that during her stint as DBM undersecretary under the leadership of then budget chief and now finance secretary Benjamin Diokno, the term “FLR funds” was not used.
“It’s actually something new to us when I reentered DBM,” Pangandaman said.
“When I entered DBM, I saw that there were a lot of documents that needed to be signed and sent to the Office of the President. I thought then that it’s quite tedious for the staff and even the Office of the President… So when I assumed office, we gave instructions that there will no longer be FLR in the government’s funds,” she added.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, the chairperson of the senate committee on finance, said that FLR funds and cash-based budgeting are antithetical to each other. He cited economic principles of efficiency and opportunity cost as factors negating the utility of FLR funds.
– Angela Celis
