MANILA: Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian has underscored the substantial improvement of the agency's budget utilization rate. He said the DSWD's obligation rate in July 2023 was only 39 percent, with a disbursement rate of 67 percent. 'We did a comprehensive housekeeping by conducting a thorough review of our processes and implemented significant improvements. We are pleased to report that the DSWD has made substantial progress in financial management,' he told the House Committee on Appropriations' deliberation on Aug. 21. "This year, the DSWD significantly surpassed this performance with an obligation rate of almost 51 percent and a disbursement rate of nearly 90 percent for the same period," he added. He said in terms of actual figures, there was a 122 percent improvement in budget utilization. 'That's an obligation amounting to PHP75.3 billion last year to an obligation of PHP123.2 billion this year. From a disbursement of around PHP50.4 billion, it's now P HP123 billion ,' he said. The DSWD earned recognition during the Economic Manager's Meeting last April as one of the agencies with improved budget utilization. 'This remarkable turnaround is a testament of our focused efforts on efficient budget utilization by optimizing our processes and maximizing the impact of every peso. We have been able to deliver essential services to more Filipinos,' Gatchalian said. The DSWD and its attached and supervised agencies have proposed a PHP229.7 billion budget for 2025. Source: Philippines News Agency