The proposed 2024 budget for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has been slashed due to its slow spending performance.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said in a press briefing at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) office in Manila yesterday the DICT will receive the largest budget cut for next year among agencies that will get lower budgets due to weak utilization.
Pangandaman said, during the budget deliberations held in June, the DICT was only able to utilize around seven percent of its budget as of midyear.
“DICT has a budget of P10 billion under the General Appropriations Act, (but) for the (2024) National Expenditure Program it’s P9 billion. There is a P1 billion reduction, because during a congressional hearing, they looked at our budget, and saw that the DICT has a low budget utilization rate, low absorptive capacity, so we take that into consideration in the budget,” Pangandaman said.
“I’m heartbroken because we’re pushing for digitalization,” she added.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno earlier identified DICT as one of the slowest spenders in the first half of the year, which led to government expenses falling below program.
“Most of them (slow spenders) are catching up, but for the DICT, the low utilization rate is prominent. But they promised to have a catch-up plan and increase the utilization rate before the start of budget deliberations. Because if their budget use increases by then, who knows, maybe Congress will increase their budget in the same level as this year,” she added.
