MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Budget and Management defended the lump sum allocations in the 2015 General Appropriations Act (GAA), following former Senator Panfilo Lacson’s allegations.

DBM said the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) no longer exists in the 2015 budget and that there are “fewer” lump sums now than in the past.

DAP is a mechanism designed by the Aquino administration in 2011 to use unreleased, unprogrammed, and realigned items in the national budget to increase spending and, in turn, accelerate economic expansion.

“Mr Lacson’s doomsday assertions on lump sums and the supposed resurrection of DAP under the 2015 budget are inaccurate. It is unclear to us how Mr Lacson arrived at the lump-sum figures that he named in his PICPA speech, because these figures are not in the GAA,” DBM said in a statement.

DBM said lump sums do not automatically translate to fund irregularities. Although the agency has already disaggregated 87% of the Special Purpose Funds in the 2015 budget, DBM said they could not totally get away with lump sum allocations.

It cited the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund as an example, saying this refers to “funds whose specific purposes are impossible to determine in the planning process.”

“Some budget items, by their very nature, must be expressed in lump sums so that the government can continue to deliver goods and services in the face of contingencies,” the DBM said.

Lacson alleged that lump-sum appropriations amounting to at least P424 billion are still present in the 2015 budget and said this could be the “rebirth” of the controversial DAP.

In 2014, the Supreme Court declared parts of the DAP unconstitutional, particularly the withdrawal of unobligated and unreleased allotments and their declaration as savings. – Rappler.com