DOTr vows higher budget spending for infra projects

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has committed to improve its budget spending for infrastructure projects this year.

“I am setting a higher internal target for DOTr so as to pressure ourselves to perform better. If the Department of Budget and Management sets a 72 percent target on budget spending, ours will be 80 percent,” Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade said. 

Tugade’s statement comes as Sen. Loren Legarda, chairman of the finance committee at the Senate, has challenged government agencies, including DOTr, not to underspend its budget. 

Legarda said the DOTr has spent as of June only 18 percent of its P55 billion budget for this.

She said in December last year,  the DOTr also returned P11.5 billion of unspent funds to the National Treasury.

Tugade said the DOTr has only managed to spend such for this year as most of the projects have just finished bidding and procurement processes and would start construction and implementation soon.

He said it is only at the start of construction and implementation of projects when actual spending begins.

“Government processes take time. There are procedures and submissions and they could get frustrating at times, but these processes are necessary to ensure that there are no abuses. But I assure you that our projects are on track, even ahead of schedule,” he said. 

As for the funds returned to the National Treasury in December last year, he said such was a result of underspending from the previous administration. When the new DOTr administration took over in July last year, P19.2 billion worth of funds were unobligated.

Within six months,  the DOTr managed to obligate and download around P7 billion to projects and other attached agencies, a move allowed by the Commission on Audit.

“There simply wasn’t enough time. We were given six months to spend what our predecessor failed to spend and government processes are not cut out for that. Procurement alone can take months and months, and even years,” Tugade said. 

On claims the DOTr has not started any infrastructure project this year, he said the agency broke ground on projects including the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 Cavite Extension Project and the LRT-2 East Extension Project.

Other projects are also up for implementation. 

The Communications Navigation Surveillance / Air Traffic Management system is due for full implementation by the end of the year and at least eight airports are currently being equipped with night-landing capabilities.