1 month ago
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Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman emphasized her commitment to making the country’s budget process more transparent amid calls from civil society and business groups.
In a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 6, Pangandaman recalled that the DBM launched last year the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reforms Roadmap 2024-2028.
The roadmap is essentially the government’s framework on modernizing fiscal governance and transforming how public funds are managed across agencies.
Pangandaman said this covers 11 key strategies that covers all aspects of financial management, namely:
1. Planning and budgeting linkage
2. Cash management
3. Public asset management
4. Accounting and auditing
5. PFM capacity development
6. Digital PFM
7. PFM policy and legal framework
8. Public procurement
9. Disaster risk reduction and management
10. PFM for local government units
11. Monitoring and evaluation for public expenditure
“For the past two days, i have been hearing from our civil society organizations the need to make our budget more transparent. So, the digital [PFM], in the key areas that I just mentioned, definitely will help us make our budget system more transparent,” said Pangandaman.
She said the DBM is already making progress in the systems and applications involved in the integrated financial management information system and budget treasury management system.
The DBM chief said these systems are “online” and “real-time,” allowing the public access to government disbursements and transactions.
Eventually, she said, this will extend to finances involving government procurement.
Pangandaman added that she is also working towards institutionalizing the monitoring and evaluation of public funds.
“I think it’s about time to show the impact of the funding that we give to our people” she explained.
The Budget Secretary shared this sentiment during the second day of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting (APRM) at the Grand Hyatt Manila in Taguig City.
The event saw the participation of government representatives, civil society leaders, and policymakers across 75 countries and 150 local governments.
DBM Undersecretary Rolando Toledo said this event enabled the agency to look at other transparency initiatives from other countries that the Philippines may opt to follow.
“But as of now, I think we are the inspiration of other countries, by the way, as far as fiscal transparency is concerned,” noted Toledo.
Citing data from the 2024 Open Budget Survey (OBS), he pointed out the Philippines has ranked first in Asia for budget transparency and tenth in global rankings.
Earlier, civil society organizations and business leaders urged the government to make the country’s budget processes more transparent amid issues in this year’s national budget.
Business groups, headed by the Makati Business Club (MBC), recently proposed reforms to ensure that the budget is aligned with long-term economic stability.
They recommended that budget discussions such as in the bicameral conference committee made public, as well as pushing citizen participation in the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).
