By Ma. Teresa Montemayor
MANILA – The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will tighten rules on government planning sessions and year-end activities to curb wasteful spending and prevent agencies from exhausting their remaining budgets merely to boost utilization rates.
In a news release Monday, Acting Secretary Kim Robert de Leon warned against holding questionable activities toward the end of the fiscal year.
“Especially now that we are in the fourth quarter, so surely there will be a surge in utilization because there will be parties left and right, masquerading to be planning sessions,” De Leon said.
He acknowledged that some practices had evolved from activities originally authorized under government budget policies.
“We have to admit, some of those started from a budget circular authorizing one to be conducted, and it just snowballed, and everyone loves doing strategic planning in hotels like this,” he said.
While recognizing the importance of legitimate planning and coordination activities, De Leon said government expenditures must remain necessary, reasonable and consistent with their intended purposes.
“Please be assured that policy revisions will be out very soon, tightening government’s policy in ensuring that we spend our money wisely and for the benefit of our people,” he said.
The forthcoming revisions aim to strengthen safeguards against wasteful spending while allowing legitimate activities necessary for effective government operations and public service delivery.
De Leon said agencies should be assessed based on the quality and results of their spending, rather than the percentage of their budgets utilized.
“Don’t just look at, ‘We spent 98 percent of budget.’ On what?” he said.
“We’re looking at quality of spending. You may be spending less but producing more in terms of output and even outcome,” he added.
The DBM is pushing for results-oriented budgeting, which prioritizes the actual benefits and outcomes of government expenditures over spending targets alone.
