The Senate Committee on Finance has introduced a special provision under the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2022 that seeks to revert to the National Treasury funds lodged with the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service (DBM-PS) if it remains unspent by the end of 2023.
Senator Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate finance panel, confirmed this in an online interview with reporters.
“We have a special provision regarding the DBM-PS. That’s also one of the things commented on by the members. It’s like a ‘sweep provision’...It’s a fund sweep. Meaning, all the funds with DBM-PS, if it remains unsent by the end of 2023, would be returned to the national government,” Angara said.
The senator said this provision aims to prevent instances wherein funds transferred by different agencies to this government office for the procurement of items will remain unutilized for several years.
“We will prevent instances where funds are sleeping for eight years without the project being bidded out. This should no longer happen. They will have a deadline to comply with,” Angara said.
“Basically, it’s finished or not finished, you should pass your paper,” he said.
Angara also explained they stretched the deadline until December 2023 to give agenices a year to complete payments for the projects it bidded out.
“We’re giving them additional time to pay, to disburse the funds,” he said, adding that they will lose the funds if they fail to meet the deadline.
Angara said this provision will also help settle issues of government agencies parking their funds under the DBM-PS.
“Some agencies feel that once they transfer the funds with DBM-PS, they were able to obligate the funds already, when the truth is they have not. It’s a false sense of security,” he pointed out.
Sought for comment, Senate minority Franklin Drilon, who was one of the senators pushing to prohibit agencies from parking their funds under the DBM-PS and the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) to skirt procurement laws.
“I support the provision that will require DBM-PS to disburse the funds it holds for the various national agencies by Dec 31, 2023,” Drilon said.
“A similar provision should be made to apply to PITC’s which have billions of ‘parked’ funds in its coffers,” the minority leader added.