ILOILO CITY, Sept. 4 (PNA) –- The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is now gearing to submit its recommendations on how to speed up implementation of projects by the respective boards of state colleges and universities (SUCs) in Western Visayas.
DBM regional director Alfonso Bedonia Jr. said that they have visited the 11 SUCs in the region to organize their full-time delivery unit and hasten their project implementation in response to reports citing government underspending.
“We have so much money but we cannot spend all of these,” he explained citing that there are bottlenecks, especially in terms of procurement.
He disclosed that there are SUCs that are yet to bid out their 2014 projects.
“We hope that starting September up to the end of the year the spending will improve. We are guiding them; we are meeting with the bids and awards committee (BAC) and determine bottlenecks so we can prescribe measures,” he added.
He cited that aside from procurement concerns, agencies are very keen in their spending due to strict measures observed by concerned government agencies such as the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Office of the Ombudsman.
There are 11 SUCs in Western Visayas. Budget for projects of these institutions range from PHP5 million as minimum and up to more than PHP50 million for bigger institutions.
The University of the Philippines in the Visayas is not included because its fund is integrated with the UP System. (PNA)