Government agencies utilized 96.6% of their cash allocations at the end of September, a slight step back from the 97.3% recorded a year earlier, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). The end-September reading covers the first nine months of the government's January-to-December fiscal year, leaving the fourth quarter outside the reported period.

The figures come from the DBM's cash allocation utilization report, which showed that the National Government, local government units, and state-owned companies had drawn down P3.861 trillion of the P3.998 trillion in notices of cash allocation (NCAs) issued as of end-September. Unused NCAs totaled P136.499 billion. Utilization of these releases provides a snapshot of how much of the spending authority already issued to agencies was converted into withdrawals and disbursements during the period.

NCAs are cash authorities issued by the DBM that set the maximum amount agencies may withdraw or disburse through authorized government servicing banks to pay for their obligations. Because they are issued against the appropriations in the annual national budget, utilization rates serve as a gauge of how budget execution is progressing across the bureaucracy.

Line departments accounted for the bulk of the spending, using P2.6 trillion, or 95.2%, of their cash allocations by the end of September and leaving P130.607 billion unused.

The Office of the Ombudsman recorded a full 100% utilization rate, leaving zero unused NCAs. Four other offices — the Judiciary, the Commission on Audit, the Commission on Elections, and the Commission on Human Rights — posted utilization rates that round up to 100%, each carrying only small unused balances.

Several agencies exceeded the 99% mark, among them the Department of the Interior and Local Government (99.9%), the Department of Foreign Affairs (99.8%), the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (99.8%), and state universities and colleges (99.8%).

At the other end of the table, the Presidential Communications Office logged the lowest utilization among department-level entries at 75.3%. It was followed by the Office of the President (76.3%), the Department of Budget and Management itself (79.5%), the Civil Service Commission (81.4%), and the Department of Agriculture (84.8%).

By funding category, about P204.618 billion — or 99.7% — of the NCAs released as budgetary support to government-owned and -controlled corporations had been utilized by the end of September. NCAs allocated to local government units were 99.5% utilized, while those issued to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority reached 99.8%. Subsequent releases in the DBM's cash allocation utilization series will cover the final quarter of the fiscal year, showing how the end-September utilization figures evolved through year-end. — Justine Irish D. Tabile, BusinessWorld

Source: BusinessWorld