The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is set to release all special allotment release orders (SAROs) for 2024 this week as well as the excess releases from last year in a bid to expedite state agencies’ utilization.

During an interview, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said that it is currently processing the National Budget Circular, which is targeted to be released sometime this week.

“We will release the national budget circular this week pati yung on how to really streamline everything para we'll give all the money to the implementing agency and they will take care of the implementation,” she said.

“Pinapakuha ko na yung numbers kung ilang percentage na lang of the total budget ang for later release para everything will be out,” she added.

[I'm already obtaining the numbers for the percentage of the total budget that will be released later, ensuring that everything will be released.]

SARO is issued to agencies so they will incur obligations not exceeding a given amount during a specified period for the purpose indicated.

The budget chief also said that a technical working group, which will review the budget execution process, is already being materialized.

Last year, the DBM said it wanted to expedite the release of funds in line with the Philippine Development Plan following reports of underspending in several state agencies.

Meanwhile, Pangandaman also said that she is confident that the budget utilization rate for 2023 will exceed that in 2022 which was at 98 percent.

Currently, as of end-November, government expenditures hit P4.675 trillion. It targeted to hit P5.34 trillion for full year 2023, meaning that it would have to spend P665.04 billion in December to meet this target.

Figures for last year’s budget utilization rate will be out in two weeks, Pangandaman said.