Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman thanked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the recognition given to the DSWD as the “Most Improved Department,” an award given to national government agencies for their capacity to properly disburse funds from the national coffers.

The DBM cited the DSWD as the “Most Improved Department” among the Account Management Team (AMT) – guided departments in terms of disbursement performance in 2012. According to DBM, the DSWD’s improved capacity to disburse funds received from the national coffers is a positive indication of the attainability of common goal of the government to help sustain the country’s economic growth. The DSWD was able to provide critical services to the Filipino people through steadfast collaboration between the DBM as an oversight agency and the spending agencies.

During the first semester of 2012, the DSWD was among the low-spending departments that has weak links between its finance, planning, procurement, and operations offices. However, with the creation of the AMT, the catch-up plans were put in place to accelerate the utilization with P50 billion actual disbursements from August to December 2012, thus, surpassing the P47 billion target of the Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC).

Secretary Soliman expressed her congratulations to DSWD officials and employees for their contributions, saying that, “the recognition is owed to your continuous efforts in carrying out the implementation strategy of accelerating our programs and projects by monitoring closely financial and physical performance.”

“The DSWD will continue to work harder to make government an effective servant of the people through prudent use of public funds and in keeping with the government’s commitment to enforce accountability in government operations,” Secretary Soliman stated.   ###