MANILA – – Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno expects the proposed Budget Reform measure would be signed into law before President Rodrigo R. Duterte delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July.
This after the House of Representatives approved on Tuesday their version of the bill, which received 158 yes votes, eight no votes, and one abstention.
In a briefing Wednesday, Diokno said Senator Loren Legarda will sponsor a similar bill Tuesday afternoon.
“So we expect this bill to be passed and approved before the President’s State of the Nation Address in July. And so this will really be a game changer as far as budget-making is concerned in this country,” he said.
With the looming reforms on budget utilization, Diokno continues to see further improvements on government spending, which in 2017 rose 11 percent year-on-year to PHP2.823 trillion and short of only two percent against the PHP2.909 trillion target.
Diokno hopes expenditures growth to be at “the same level, if not better” this year.
He is hopeful that by next year spending “will be approximately equal to the target.”
In 2019, the government will be adopting a cash-based national budget to fast track program delivery since contractual obligations and budget disbursements will be done within the fiscal year, with an extended period of three months.
Currently, the government is using the obligations-based budget system, wherein validity of the budget is until the next fiscal year.
“We are prepared for that. The importance of the Budget Reform Bill is once we step down the next president will not mess around with the budget system because we are now institutionalizing a new budget system,” he said. (PNA)
