DBM moves to curb lavish parties disguised as planning sessions

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will tighten rules on government planning sessions and year-end activities to prevent agencies from using up their remaining funds on questionable gatherings just to raise budget utilization rates.

Acting Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon said Monday that the government expects a surge in spending during the fourth quarter, when some agencies may hold parties and other activities presented as planning sessions.

“Especially now that we are in the fourth quarter, so surely there will be a surge in utilization because there will be parties left and right, masquerading to be planning sessions,” De Leon said in a news release.

He acknowledged that some practices stemmed from earlier budget policies that authorized certain activities but eventually became widespread.

“We have to admit, some of those started from a budget circular authorizing one to be conducted, and it just snowballed, and everyone loves doing strategic planning in hotels like this,” he said.

De Leon said the DBM would soon issue policy revisions to ensure government expenditures remain necessary, reasonable and aligned with their intended purposes. The tighter rules are intended to curb wasteful spending without preventing legitimate planning and coordination activities needed for government operations.

“Please be assured that policy revisions will be out very soon, tightening government’s policy in ensuring that we spend our money wisely and for the benefit of our people,” he said.

The DBM is also pushing agencies to measure budget performance through the results of their spending rather than the share of their appropriations they have used.

“Don’t just look at, ‘We spent 98 percent of budget.’ On what?” De Leon said.

“We’re looking at quality of spending. You may be spending less but producing more in terms of output and even outcome,” he added.

The department said its results-oriented budgeting approach prioritizes the actual outputs and benefits of government expenditures, rather than spending targets alone.