Bicam presses DBM for report on unreleased 2018 funds

MANILA, Philippines — The bicameral conference committee of Congress have demanded that Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno furnish it with a report on the total unreleased appropriations and unobligated allotments from 2018.

“We need that report in order to pass the 2019 budget. We need a clear picture of our spending authority. Congress authorized the extension of the 2018 appropriations. We demand to see the balances,” Rep. Rolando Andaya, appropriations committee chair, said in a statement issued on Sunday, as the bicam went into its last leg of deliberations on the proposed 2019 national budget.

“We are not talking of millions of pesos here. The total amount runs in billions of pesos. These are lump sum funds under the disposal of Secretary Diokno,” he added.

According to Andaya, the House had long been requesting Diokno to release the report.

Diokno failed, however, to submit it, Andaya said.

“This report is two years overdue,” he said.

Neither had Diokno submitted the report on the 2017 budget savings, Andaya said.

“Secretary Diokno may have evaded scrutiny of DBM [Department of Budget and Management] pork in the 2018 budget deliberations. Not this time. No DBM report on 2018 savings, no bicam report for 2019 budget,” Andaya added.

Last Dec. 28, President Rodrigo Duterte signed last a congressional resolution extending the validity of the 2018 appropriations for maintenance and other operating expenses and capital outlays to Dec. 31, 2019.

The resolution authorizes the disbursement of appropriations under the 2018 budget that have not been released and allotments issued that have not been obligated.

Unexpended appropriations will be reverted to the unappropriated surplus of the general fund to be used for priority projects, aid and relief activities, and the maintenance, construction, repair and rehabilitation of schools, hospitals, roads, and other essential government facilities. /atm