A former House Appropriations Committee chairman says the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has a lot of explaining to do when it comes to the glut of Unprogrammed Appropriations (UAs) amounting to P588.1 billion under the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023.
Deputy Speaker and Davao City 3rd district Rep. Isidro Ungab told the DBM Tuesday, Aug. 30 to prepare to defend the proposed budget it connection with the UAs, which account for 16 percent of the total programmed new appropriations in the 2023 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
Ungab noted in a statement that the 16 percent "represents a sharp turn from the historical records of two percent (2%) to five (5%) in previous years".
UAs are standby appropriations and not backed up by revenues.
“I believe clarifications on these UAs must be made, considering its impact on the fiscal discipline or fiscal program of the national government, since the Unprogrammed Appropriations are also considered revenue-based expenditure. Thus, it would be best if we will able to include these UAs in the budget, with sufficient guidelines and proper limitations,” Ungab said.
He stressed that DBM must be able to clarify whether these UAs are part of the “appropriations” mentioned in the Constitution. Ungab explained that he considers these UAs as part of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s proposal under the NEP, even if these are deemed as standby appropriations and not backed-up by revenues at the time the NEP was submitted to Congress.
But the Davao solon also pointed out that while UAs are part of the NEP, the same are netted out as part of the “obligation budget or the cash-based budget”.
Ungab also raised the possibility that having a big amount of UAs may hinder support for future supplemental budgets, since the excess or new revenue sources may be used first to fund the UAs in the General Appropriations Act (GAA), even if the new programs or projects are of equal or more importance.