DOF pushes judicious public spending 

Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto on Wednesday said results of the Philippine Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment Report can guide authorities how to judiciously allocate and spend funds to sustain the delivery of quality public service and programs, according to a report by Philippine News Agency.

Results of the 2024 Philippines PEFA Assessment Report, released Tuesday, showed that the government “maintains a strong fiscal foundation, demonstrated by robust revenue and expenditure performance, effective debt and cash management, comprehensive performance monitoring, transparent intergovernmental transfers, and improved procurement oversight.”

“I see these reports as part of the compelling literature that will remind those with the power to ordain public spending of their cardinal duty to spend wisely and never recklessly,” Recto, Public Financial Management Committee Principal, said during the event as quoted in a statement released by the DOF.

He added that if used by policymakers, the report would serve “not just as tabletop reading but to improve conditions on the ground, where they matter most."

The 2024 PEFA Assessment is the first multi-framework, multi-stakeholder assessment in the country, spearheaded by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, the DOF said.

The country is the first in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to conduct a full-scale PFM Disaster Response and Recovery Assessment.

Recto said the release of the report is timely as the government prepares crafting for next year’s national budget, which he hopes to be resilient to shocks, responsive to disasters, receptive to national goals and “resistant to the tinkering and the tampering that subvert national goals and derail our fiscal plan.”

He said the report underscores the fundamental principles of responsible budgeting.

“That we only spend what we can sustainably raise. That revenues are the upstream of appropriations and not the other way around. That current expenditures should not bequeath a huge pasa load of debt to the generations that will come after us. Because if we flip the order, the future pays the price,” he added.