Spending for infra, capital up in Jan-Feb

State spending for infrastructure and capital outlays climbed to P118.4 billion in the first two months of the year, the Budget department said on Thursday.

In a report, the department said January-to-February spending, which grew 26.3 percent from the P93.8 billion recorded a year earlier, was “mainly due to payment of prior years’ accounts payables for completed infrastructure projects of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways).”

The January-February figure put total national government spending at P490.70 trillion for the period, P31.8 billion higher compared to the same period last year.

It was, however, P43.7 billion less than the estimated P534.4 billion, which could be due to delays in the approval of the 2019 budget.

The government has been operating on last year’s P3.767-trillion budget since the start of the year. This means agencies can only spend for items detailed in the 2018 outlay and cannot embark on programs and projects supposed to be implemented this year.

The Budget department, however, remains optimistic as the national budget is expected to be signed by President Rodrigo Duterte next week.
“This will hopefully minimize the impact of the delays in the approval of the 2019 budget,” it said.

With this, the department said “agencies can already proceed with the award of contracts and start implementing new activities with the effectivity of the 2019 GAA (General Appropriations Act), and undertake catch-up measures to meet their respective targets for the year.”

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