The Department of Education affirms that it has already made significant strides in addressing its fiscal challenges.
In “The burden of a large DepEd budget” (Opinion, 6/9/18) written by National Book Development Board chair Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, the impression of underutilization is based on figures reported in the July 2017 budget hearing, on which the DepEd was quick to catch up by December of last year.
A three-year comparison of the DepEd’s budget utilization shows a steady decline in underspending — from 12 percent in 2015, to 10 percent in 2016, and finally, to only 3 percent in 2017. This can be attributed to several fiscal management reforms initiated by the agency.
In a span of three years, the DepEd has done what it can to address the systemic problems and dysfunctions within the bureaucracy, and hurdle the challenges in the budget process.
The Agency Performance Review rating issued by the Department of Budget and Management on May 30, 2018, and the Audit Observation Memorandum on 2017 budget utilization issued by the Commission of Audit on April 24, 2018, have recognized the DepEd’s improved performance at the agency’s various levels of governance.
Given that increased budget utilization is a function of performance, rest assured that the work will not end here as the DepEd continues to deliver programs and services, accomplish its physical targets, and ensure that deep-seated bottlenecks, challenges and constraints are fully addressed and eventually eliminated.
The current administration’s mission is not just to achieve quality spending, but, more importantly, to promptly deliver quality, accessible, relevant and liberating basic education to its 27.7 million and continuously increasing number of learners.
This is collectively being realized by the entire DepEd family, starting from Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones’ principled leadership and on to the executive committee, the management committee, all the regional and schools division operations, and its more than 800,000 public school teachers nationwide.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION