August 23, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) is seeking a 34 percent increase in its budget for 2025, but the agency is faced with the question on whether it can utilize this given its history of underspending.
Think tank Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) is worried that the DICT may find it challenging to maximize its new appropriations next year.
The CPBRD flagged the consistent underspending of the DICT as one of the issues it has to deal with, especially as it is asking for a higher budget of P9.24 billion in 2025, from P6.91 billion in 2024.
The DICT was provided in 2023 with a budget of P15.46 billion, made up of new, automatic and continuing appropriations. That year, the agency was able to strengthen its obligation rate to 62.2 percent, from 35.8 percent in 2022.
In spite of this, the CPBRD said the DICT still failed to use P5.84 billion of its budget. Further, the research unit of Congress said the DICT’s Office of the Secretary is notorious for registering the lowest disbursement rate in government.
In budget deliberations in 2023, the House of Representatives demanded the office to work on its absorptive capacity before demanding an additional budget.
The office committed to raise its disbursement rate to 70 percent by the end of 2023, but failed to deliver on this promise, reaching just 18.9 percent.
Moreover, the DICT’s history of underspending is preventing the proposed hike of yearly budget for one of its flagship projects, the Free Public Internet Access Program.
The FPIAP has received P2.5 billion every year since 2022, and the program is set to receive the same amount next year. However, the DICT laments that it can only expand the reach of FPIAP if the program is allocated P9 billion annually.
The DICT sets up internet sites in government schools and public spaces through the FPIAP. So far, the agency has switched on 12,421 sites across the archipelago, and President Marcos demands the DICT to expand the program to link more Filipinos to the web.
“During the budget deliberations last August 2023, the Department of Budget and Management informed House officials that the DICT may request additional funding for FPIAP on top of the P2.5 billion – if or when the implementing agency has managed to efficaciously utilize the initial appropriation,” the CPBRD said.
“Based on records, this is yet to happen since the program was first implemented because of the DICT’s history of low budget utilization rates,” it added.
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