The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is confident there is no risk of government underspending this year.
DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said at the Philippine Economic Briefing yesterday that while underspending was an issue last year, forcing some government agencies to implement catch up plans, the necessary improvements are already in place this year to avoid the risk of significantly spending below the program.
“For this year, what’s important to note is the 2024 budget was already prepared by our cabinet secretaries, so all of their priority projects and programs were included in this year’s budget, so with that they will actually implement those projects on time,” the budget said.
She added in the general appropriations act, the provision on early procurement has already been included.
“In January of this year we already released more than 80 percent of the budget, so we expect that by now, most of their projects are already bided out and ready for implementation,” the budget chief said.
The DBM has released 86 percent of the government’s full-year 2024 budget as of end-April.
According to data posted on its website, the DBM has released P4.96 trillion of the P5.77 trillion 2024 full-year program as of April 30.
The remaining balance for the year is P809.16 billion.
Allotment releases to departments as of April 2024 amounted to P3.4 trillion, or 97.2 percent of the 2024 program.
