Thread by @znsuzara

1/x A thread on the issue of Bayanihan underspending:

First of all, Secretary Dominguez is being intellectual dishonest. Budget release data is the WRONG information to cite to either prove or disprove underspending. Budget release has nothing to do with actual spending.

2/x Budget release is solely the mandate of the DBM. Budget utilization is what we should expect from ALL government agencies that receive funds released by DBM.

So is there underspending of Bayanihan funds? The short and direct answer to that is YES.

3/x That is based on the government's own budget utilization reports on the Bayanihan funds. The latest one was released by the DBM about a month ago. That is what I analysed last week.

Here's the link: bit.ly/3i44BR0

4/x Before I go on discussing what budget utilization is, there is a caveat to the figures that I willing be citing here. I am not intellectually dishonest so let me tell you that there may be updates later on because DBM said they will release a more updated report

5/x I will also be specifically underspending examples from Bayanihan 2 because @KenAbante and I - and in fact, many other friends in civil society - were particularly concerned about the unspent funds that went to waste with the expiration of Bayanihan 2.

6/x Also, I linked the report so I can be facthecked in case I made incorrect computations.

7/x That said, let’s go back to underspending which is basically the inability of government agencies to spend funds allocated and authorized by Congress. As I said, budget release data is the WRONG information to cite. That doesn’t say anything about SPENDING.

8/x It only tells us what, when, and how much of the funds each department or agency received. Surely the DOF Secretary knows that?

Might I add that if perhaps Dominguez isn't aware, he probably should have passed the mic to Avisado. it's the DBM Sec's job anyway.

9/x How much was actually spent by the agencies can be gleaned from the budget utilization section of the Bayanihan status report specifically the data on OBLIGATIONS and DISBURSEMENTS.

10/x I’ve defined these two terms on here many times, but for those who might be reading about the national budget or public budget terminologies for the first time:

OBLIGATION essentially refers to how much has been contracted out by an agency

11/x DISBURSEMENT refers to how much has actually been paid to suppliers, contractors or service providers. Disbursement data is based on the bank accounts of the agencies after a certain cut-off date. Both DBM and Treasury monitor this.

12/x If only this administration was honest, and transparent, then Dominguez would have pointed to obligation and disbursement figures.

Why didn’t he? Because the figures aren’t nice. They're far from stellar and won’t make the administration look good.

13/x If anything, the figures paint a picture of an administration that is incompetent and inefficient - one that can't get its act together, one that can't compel the bureaucracy to spend as fast as it should in the middle of the pandemic, ONE THAT IS FAILING AT GOVERNANCE

14/x They have been denying the truth about underspending since day 1. You see, absorptive capacity remains a problem, and the pandemic has made that an even greater challenge to overcome.

15/x Understandable as it is for someone like me who has worked long enough in government, it is unacceptable for the economic managers to consistently lie about this and resort to misinformation.

16/x But moving on, what does the DBM report show?

Under Bayanihan 1, about 394B was released. Of that amount, 365B was obligated and 346B was disbursed.

Under Bayanihan 2, 205B was released. Of that amount, 188B was obligated and 142B was disbursed.

17/x Ideally, what was released should all be obligated and disbursed within a given timeframe. Normally, that's based on the validity of the General Appropriations Acts. Some exceptions are made for certain types of expenditures like capital outlays.

18/x Nevertheless, under RA11519, the law that extended the validity of Bayanihan 2, the time limit given to agencies to fully obligate and disburse their funds was 30 June 2021. Otherwise, funds that remain unexpended and undisbursed shall revert to the Treasury.

19/x The next questions are these: How much remains UNOBLIGATED? How much remains UNDISBURSED? We can find out by using these super simple formula:

a. Allotment releases - obligations = unobligated amount

b. Obligations - disbursements = undisbursed amount

20/x In Tagalog:

unobligated amount = hindi nagamit na funding authority kasi hindi na-contract out ang program or project

undisbursed amount = hindi nagamit na pera sa bank account ng agency; kelangan ibalik sa Treasury kapag hindi nagamit

21/x There is another way of computing the undisbursed amount. If we are to hold them to higher standards, we should consider too how much was actually released by DBM. So the formula will be like this:

c. Allotment releases - disbursements = undisbursed amount

22/x Under Bayanihan 1, unobligated funds amount to 29B, while undisbursed funds (vs obligations) amounts to 19B, or as much as 48B (vs allotment releases)

So, is there underspending in Bayanihan 1? OBVIOUSLY, YES. BILLIONS OF FUNDS WERE LEFT UNOBLIGATED AND UNDISBURSED.

23/x Bayanihan 1 expired last year. Therefore, it should have already been fully spent.

24/x Under Bayanihan 2, unobligated funds amount to 17B, while undisbursed funds (vs. obligations) amounts to a whopping 46B and as much as 63B (vs. allotments)

Again, is there underspending in Bayanihan 2? WELL???

25/x Like I said, Bayanihan 2 expired end of last month and yet....

26/x I don’t know where Dominguez got the 660B - perhaps a more updated but unpublished report which includes non-Bayanihan funds.

These are the totals for Bayanihan 1 and 2 based on the DBM report:

- Total releases: 599B
- Total obligations: 553B
- Total disbursements: 488B

27/x On the flip side, the picture of underspending looks like this:

- Unobligated funds amount to a total of 46B
- Undisbursed funds amount to a total of 65B (vs obligations)
- Undisbursed funds amount to a total of 111B (vs. allotments)

28/x Either way you look at it, THE GOVERNMENT’S OWN REPORT SHOWS SERIOUS PROBLEM OF UNDERSPENDING.

Why does this matter? Because unspent funds means public service denied at a time when economic misery is at an all time, as @jcpunongbayan always points out.

29/x Unobligated and undisbursed amounts means Bayanihan funding allocations did not benefit SOME segments of critically affected and vulnerable individuals that Bayanihan was supposed to support.

30/x Unspent funds have real consequences for target beneficiaries like COVID-19 patients, impoverished families, learners struggling with distance learning, PUV drivers whose incomes have significantly diminished due to mobility restrictions and physical distancing requirements.

31/x I looked at the specific urgent budget items in the report, not just the totals. I computed the obligations and disbursements and tried to come up with illustrative examples to get a handle of what beneficiaries could have received if only the funds were fully spent.

32/x Some examples of critical programs/projects with unused funds:

1. DOH Health Enhancement to Address and Limit COVID-19 (HEAL) Project  

2. DepEd Funding for Digital Education, Alternative Learning Modules, Learning Continuity Plan, etc 

3. DOTr Service Contracting

33/x DOH HEAL Project

Status: DOH obligated only Php479.7 million of Php3.9 billion meant for the advance procurement of vaccines. Of the 479.7 million that was obligated, only Php225.6 million was disbursed. Php3.4 billion of the Php3.9 billion remained unobligated.

34/x DOH HEAL Project

Undelivered Benefit: At Php650 per dose of Sinovac (as reported by Spokesperson Harry Roque in January 2021), the unobligated amount of Php3.4 billion could have procured 5.2 million doses.

35/x DepEd Funding for Digital Education, Alternative Learning Modules, Learning Continuity Plan, etc

Status: DepEd obligated only 2.5B of the 4.3 released to them and disbursed only 73.7M. The total unobligated amount is 1.8B, undisbursed is nearly the entire amount released.

36/x DepEd Funding for Digital Education, Alternative Learning Modules, Learning Continuity Plan, etc

Undelivered Benefit: At Php16 per module based on a study conducted by Aral Pilipinas, the unobligated amount of 1.8B could have procured 112,500,000 modules.

37/x DepEd Funding for Digital Education, Alternative Learning Modules, Learning Continuity Plan, etc

Undelivered Benefit: Alternatively, at Php5,000 per tablet, 1.8B could have procured 360,000 tablets.

38/x Caveat on the DepEd funds: There's no detailed breakdown as to how much is for modules, tablets, computers etc. I just computed the amount that way to make it less abstract for us.

39/x DOTr Service Contracting

Status: DOTr supposedly obligated 100% of the total 9.5B that was released to them. However, it only disbursed 101M.

40/x DOTr Service Contracting

Undelivered Benefit: @KenAbante @hyabendana @goodkidbikecity and folks of @MoveAsOnePH can speak better of this.

But from convo with them, LTFRB's total target beneficiary is 60,000 PUV drivers. So far, only 11,346 PUV drivers received payouts.

41/x To conclude this lenghty thread, I just want to leave you guys with these questions:

Shouldn’t we be angry that they’re lying to us through their teeth?

Shouldn’t we call them out for undelivered Bayanihan promises?

42/x Compared to other countries, our fiscal stimulus is small. Sa ibang ASEAN countries, 5-6 rounds and ayuda.

So bale, tinipid na nga tayo sa ayuda, hindi pa nagastos ang inilaan na pera.

43/43 Mas masahol pa doon, nagsinungaling pa sa ating lahat kung anong totoong status ng Bayanihan funds.

Galing rin kaya iyon sa mga buwis natin. At kahit sabihin pang inutang, buwis rin naman natin ang ipapambayad sa utang.

Anong tawag sa kanila? Honestly, di ko na alam.

P.S. Sorry sobrang haba! It's hard to explain this just a few tweets!

P.S. pa ulit Sorry sa mga grammatical errors! I'm so triggered I just kept tweeting!😬

But feel free to share on Facebook. I'm not posting this there anymore because I would just be preaching to the choir haha