Duterte orders savings from 2020 spent on COVID-19 response

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered government agencies to identify savings in their respective allocations under the P4.1 trillion 2020 national budget so these may be used to fund additional COVID-19 response expenses.

This is provided under Administrative Order (AO) 41 which defines savings as:

• allocations which have  not  been  obligated  as  a  result  of  the  completion, final  discontinuance  or abandonment  of  programs,  activities  or  projects (PAP)  for  which  the  appropriation is authorized and
• those corresponding to PAP which have not been obligated as a result of the implementation of measures resulting in improved systems and efficiencies and thus enabled an agency to meet and deliver the required or planned targets, programs and services at a lesser cost.

The  report  on  such  identified  portions  or  balances of  released  appropriations,  duly certified by the  head of agency and the budget and finance officers concerned, will be submitted to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) within 15 days from the  effectivity  of  AO 41 issued by the President on Wednesday, May 12.

On the basis of the certified reports submitted by the agencies, the DBM will determine the amounts that can be declared as savings under the 2020 national budget with due consideration to the extension of availability of appropriations until December 31, 2021 as well as actual deficiencies in any existing item of appropriation under the 2020 national budget that need to be augmented, including, if necessary, items of appropriation for the provision of emergency subsidies to low-income households and disadvantaged or displaced workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend these to the President.

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing cases of COVID-19 infection call for intensified government-wide response and recovery measures, including various forms of socioeconomic relief and assistance to those affected by the imposition of stricter levels of community quarantine,” AO 41 read. —NB, GMA News