DSWD has P102B for MOOE, not lump-sum or discretionary funds—Soliman

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman denied that the P102 billion in the department’s budget for 2015 represented discretionary or lump sum funds, as former senator Panfilo Lacson alleged.

Soliman said the P102 billion represented the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s budget for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE).

“The DSWD has no lump sum or discretionary funds amounting to P102.6 billion in the 2015 General Appropriations Act. How can that be when the budget of the department is already P107.8 billon?,” she said in a statement Wednesday.

“We do have a budget for maintenance and other operating expenses amounting to P102 billion,” she added.

Apparently MOOE, which refers to expenses to support an agency’s operations such as expenses for supplies and utilities for various programs and projects, took the lion’s share of the DSWD’s budget, more than what was allocated for personnel services (or the salaries and wages of all DSWD employees), financial expenses and capital outlay.

In terms of programs, activities and projects however, Soliman said the DSWD budget can be broken down into P86 billion for operations, P980.68 million for general administration, P265.75 million for support to operations and P20 billion in locally funded and foreign-assisted projects.

The P86-billion operations budget includes the P62.2 billion for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, P5.9 billion for the social pension for indigent senior citizens, P4.9 billion for the sustainable livelihood program and P3.3 billion for the supplemental feeding program.