The government has failed to spend some P168.7 billion pesos for COVID-19 related funds due to bureaucratic red tape.
This means that unnecessary paperwork, documents, and procedures got in the way of allowing government agencies to utilize the billions of pesos allotted to the COVID-19 response, reported Inquirer.
The Budget Department said that this was a quarter of the P665.7 billion already released to departments and agencies under the Bayanihan 2 Act.
Senator Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee, said a “post-mortem is needed” to find out why they could not fully disburse their funds under the two Bayanihan laws, which were both very urgent and crucial spending measures amid the pandemic.
“Hopefully we can address any spending bottlenecks, if there are any,” the senator said.
The Health Department has the biggest bulk of unspent funds.
Of the P157.4 billion in allotment releases to the DOH across the Bayanihan 1 and 2 laws plus the 2021 budget, only P51.4 billion had been spent so far.
