Government infrastructure spending lags in 10 months

Budget delay, election ban stall projects

MANILA, Philippines — Public spending on infrastructure in the first 10 months declined year-on-year, dragged down by the delay in the passage of the 2019 budget and the election ban on public works in the first half, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

In an interview with reporters late Thursday night, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said actual disbursements for infrastructure and other capital outlays reached P628.5 billion from January to October, down 5.5 percent from the P665.1 billion recorded in the same period last year.

He said this is also equivalent to 73 percent of the government’s full-year target for infrastructure expenditures, which is set at P859.5 billion.

“The decline in the disbursements for infrastructure and capital outlays was mainly due to the delay in the passage in the 2019 national budget and election ban,” Dominguez said.

In a text message, Budget Undersecretary Laura Pascua said infrastructure spending for October alone reached P82.2 billion, which is 12.9 percent lower than the P94.4 billion recorded in the same month of 2018.

Despite the decline in infrastructure expenditures, Dominguez said total disbursements from January to October rose by 5.1 percent to P2.938 trillion from P2.796 trillion in the same period last year.

This represents 78 percent of the 2019 full-year disbursement program of P3.77 trillion.

Furthermore, the finance chief expressed optimism that disbursements would accelerate in the remaining two months of the year and enable the government to hit its target.

“To attain our target disbursement of P3.77 trillion in 2019, the government needs to disburse P832 billion or 22 percent for the remaining two months of the year,” Dominguez said. “Based on the updates from our main infrastructure agencies, we are confident that we are going to hit our spending target.”

For one, he said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) committed to spend at least P221.6 billion in the last two months of the year to meet its target of P725 billion for the whole year.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr), meanwhile, reported actual disbursements of P46.82 million from Jan. 1 to Nov. 28.

“This represents 57 percent of its disbursement commitment for 2019 – the highest rate ever achieved by the agency in terms of actual disbursements, according to the report of DOTr Secretary Art Tugade,” Dominguez said.

He said the transportation department is expecting to disburse an additional P30.85 billion this December to fulfill 94 percent of its commitment for the year.