86% of 2014 budget now released to agencies—Aquino

President Benigno Aquino III. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III announced on Wednesday that some 86 percent of the P2.265-trillion national budget for 2014 has been effectively released to various agencies at the start of the year, in a measure intended to lessen “opportunities for corruption.”

The President cited the new mechanism that turned the 2014 General Appropriations Act as a “release document” as he opened the three-day summit on “good governance” at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

With Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs) and Notices of Cash Allotment (NCAs) now supposedly removed from the budget process, he said the new system “effectively solidifies our legislators’ power of the purse—a mandate that, by law, is theirs in the first place.”

“In effect: with the dawn of the first day of 2014, around 86 percent of the Budget was released to agencies—lessening opportunities for corruption and giving these agencies the ability to begin implementing their projects right away,” he said in his keynote speech.

Another key project was the launch on Wednesday of the “cashless purchase cards” (CPCs) intended to minimize the risks involved in the “high volume of cash advances in agencies.”

Mr. Aquino said the CPCs would be issued to different government agencies “for low-value payments of a restricted number and type of goods and services,” resembling “ordinary credit cards, but will have additional restrictions more suited to the needs of government.”

“Our goal is to institutionalize reforms that make it very difficult for unscrupulous individuals to steal from the people—regardless of who sits in office,” he said.

He said the goal was for all government financial transactions to be “100 percent checkless and 80 percent cashless before the end of this year.”

“For the sake of accountability and efficiency, we are pushing the envelope further,” he said, noting that “98 percent of all retail financial transactions in our country are still made in cash.”

“The government seems to be ahead of the market, with 54 percent of its financial transactions already done through a cashless system.”

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the CPC program has been a response to the alleged “conversion” of funds in the military, which was investigated by the Senate in 2011.

The CPC will be implemented initially at the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of National Defense and the Department of Budget and Management.

“A limited number of cards will be distributed to these agencies, with allowable purchases likewise limited to medical supplies, meals, the transportation of official documents, airline tickets, and construction supplies for minor repairs,” Mr. Aquino said.

“If all goes well, the program will be rolled out and cashless purchases cards will be distributed in other national government agencies next year.”

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