Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Cebu holds forum for 2008 budget

Cebu City (4 July) -- To have their budget proposals in place this early, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the region convened the top officials of some government agencies and state universities and colleges (SUCs) recently.

DBM Regional Director Atty. Carmela Fernan, in a forum, oriented the officials of the Department of Education (Deped), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), NEDA and SUCs on the thrusts of the National Budget Memorandum No. 100 which laid the framework for the 2008 budget.

The memorandum, Fernan said, aims to balance the national budget in line with the goals set in the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP).

NBM 100 prioritizes key strategic programs that support the 10-point Legacy Agenda outlined by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July last year and with the Millennium Development Goals, she stressed.

The medium term plan's priority concerns, as approved by the president, are infrastructure build-up and the improvement of the quality of basic education and of health services, Atty. Fernan said.

The said budget memorandum pegged the ceiling of each government agency. DepEd's budget can never exceed P135 billion while that of the Department of National Defense (DND) and DPWH were set at P78 billion and P75 billion, respectively.

Fernan said that the central offices of the National Government Agencies should inform their respective regional offices of their program thrusts and the supposed distribution of funds to serve as guide in preparing the budget proposals at the regional level.

The proposed national budgets are scheduled to be submitted to Congress this coming July 23. (PIA-Cebu/\ECD)

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