Underspending claims false – Diokno

DEPARTMENT of Budget and Management (DBM) secretary Benjamin Diokno on Tuesday belied reports that the Duterte administration has underspent in its first two years in office, saying that the government has in fact been overspending.

“That’s false. In fact, we are overspending,” Diokno said in a press briefing. “I don’t understand where those are coming from.”

To recall, the House minority bloc claimed that the government has incurred around P975 billion in unspent funds, but Diokno explained that administration has, in fact, “overspent” by 2.6 percent in January to September this year as disbursements reached P2.489 trillion against P2.427 trillion on program.

Diokno emphasized that the Duterte administration has decreased the underspending rate to 5.8 percent in 2017 and 3.8 percent in 2016 compared with the Aquino administration’s underspending rate of 15.8 percent in 2014 and 14.5 percent in 2015.