MANILA, July 31—The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) emphasized on Thursday that various transfers of appropriation under the 2014 budget were legitimate and open to public scrutiny, after Kabataan Partylist Representative Terry Ridon alleged that P323.6 billion in funds were improperly realigned in 2014.
The DBM likewise clarified that fund realignments and transfers of appropriation are different, where realignments involve the reallocation, modification, or change of details within an existing program, activity, or project.
Meanwhile, transfers of appropriation take place when an authorized agency transfers specific appropriations to another agency for the implementation of programs, activities, or projects.
“Rep. Ridon’s claims on 2014 fund realignments are very misleading. First, he mistakes transfers of appropriation for fund realignments, and second, he incorrectly alleges irregularity where there was none. We ask our public officials to be responsible in interpreting budget information so that we don’t misinform the public,” Budget Secretary Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad said in an official statement.
As noted in the past and present General Appropriations Act (GAA), budgetary transfers from one agency to another involve Special Provisions in a particular agency’s budget that assign another agency’s support in implementing particular programs or projects. The latter agencies are therefore given specific appropriations in order to implement these programs or projects.
In particular, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was assigned the responsibility of constructing school buildings for the Department of Education (DepEd) under the education agency’s budget in 2015. The DPWH was also tasked to construct farm-to-market roads (FMRs) for the Department of Agriculture (DA) under the latter’s 2015 budget.
On the other hand, when agencies need to effect changes in their organization to improve their operations and performance, they need to set up a Rationalization (RAT) Plan based on Executive Order (E.O.) No. 366. This Plan, which involves transferring personnel from one agency to other agencies, will also have an impact on the budget of the agency.
“You’re not only moving around personnel under a Rationalization Plan, you also need to transfer their salaries. With the Department of Agrarian Reform, they needed to transfer people to the departments of Health and Justice. That’s why we needed to move the PS requirements of the affected personnel in DAR to the two other agencies in the 2015 GAA,” Abad said.
Meanwhile, the DBM has a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao regional office of the DepEd (ARMM-DepEd) to administer their Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) premiums. Likewise, part of the budget of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is transferred to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to ensure the funding of the Child Protection Service as stated under Republic Act 10630.
With regard to funds transferred to and from Overall Savings, these followed the guidelines in declaring savings from Personnel Service (PS). These were later used to augment the 2014 National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRMMF) and 2014 Contingency Fund, as well as to help settle the GSIS liabilities of the People’s Television Network.
“Before these funds can be transferred, the agencies need to detail their projects—with the specific beneficiaries or areas—before funds are released. Likewise, all information on these transfers are well-documented and made available online. In past and present GAAs, we’ve been following the strict conditions laid down by Congress. We have also crafted the budget in accordance with the high court ruling on savings and fund transfers” Abad added.
“While we welcome criticism, we also need to be vigilant against scaremongering because that only confuses the citizens. At the same time, it contributes nothing to the public discussion on government spending,” he added. (DBM)