DBM chief hit over FLRs in 2022 budget, vows faster releases in 2023
By J.Lo
“I heard Senate president mentioned that there will be no FLRs anymore for 2023…what about FLRs for 2022?” Senator Francis Escudero asked Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman
during latter’s confirmation hearing before Commission on Appointments committee on budget and management. Escudero grilled Pangandaman over projects provided under 2022 General Appropriations Act but whose respective funds have been tagged as “for later release.”
“These FLRs are part of the General Appropriations Act…it’s a law… so may I ask, when do you intend to complete all FLRs that have been issued insofar as 2022 GAA is concerned?” he stressed.
Pangandaman had to check with Department of Budget and Management balance in the 2022 national budget which had yet to be released to the agencies.
She would check with DBM’s legal team if it’s possible to amend circular on FLR policy.
FLR allocations are items in the budget which may only be released with approval of the President.
In Development Budget Coordination Committee’s (DBCC) briefing for senators earlier, Pangandaman said there would be no FLRs in the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023.
Escudero asked Pangandaman if amendments introduced by Congress to the National Expenditures Program submitted by Executive Department would not be treated as FLR by the administration.
Pangandaman said with allocations deemed as FLRs, the agency involved sends its request to DBM and DBM in turn sends it to the Office of the President for approval.
“And once approved by the Office of the President, that’s the only time we can release the budget, with 2023 budget po, that will not be the case…the amendments of legislators, agencies will still have to send special budget request but mas mabilis na po yan…isang linggo lang po ‘yan” Pangandaman said.
Escudero said there was provision in the proposed 2023 budget DBM, as general rule, would consider budget as release document if its line item but may decide which line items may not be released immediately.
“These are line item amendments…so again, we are supposed to have power of the purse…by the very nature of your department, your part of the Executive Branch that executes law, so my question is if it’s line item amendment and not lump sum amendment, hindi ba mag-aapply ang budget as released document d’on sa amendment na y’on ” Escudero said.
Pangandaman said it was the mandate of the DBM to release budget for project implementations.
She vowed to stop practice of other departments’ “parking” of funds in the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (PS-DBM).
Pangandaman made the commitment when asked by Senator Risa Hontiveros if she would exercise oversight over the other agencies under DBM and disallow any downloading of funds to PS-DBM.
“Most of budgets of departments, they download their budget to PS-DBM if they cannot finish project or program…if you download it to PS-DBM which is corporate in nature, parang obligated na po siya, so we already asked Government Procurement Policy Board to work on our implementing rules and regulations po para hindi ma-download ang pera kung hindi po kayang tapusin ng ahensya, I think it’s but wise that if you have funding, I think, it’s better to be implemented rather than being parked to another agency ” Pangandaman said.
Senator Cynthia Villar said legislation should be passed to permanently stop this practice.
“As DBM secretary, you are willing to reform but how about succeeding DBM secretaries…maybe we should reform through legislation… so it will be continuing,” Villar concluded.
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