Senate panel tackles COA, OMB 2023 budgets
FINANCE Committee chairperson Senator Sonny Angara presided over the Subcommittee a hearing on the proposed budgets of the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) for the fiscal year 2023.
COA Commissioner Roland Cafe Pondoc, during his presentation Tuesday, September 27, 2022, urged the panel to restore the cuts in the agency’s Personnel Services (PS) and Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) budgets.
Under the National Expenditure Program (NEP), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has approved the amount of P13.813 billion, or a lesser amount by P723 million, compared to previous years.
Pondoc appealed to the subcommittee to restore the same budget of P14.536 billion budget for next year.
Angara acknowledged the appeal of COA and, in fact, has increased the COA budget for the last four years “or probably even longer.”
The proposed 2023 budget of the OMB, on the other hand, is P4.781 billion as approved by the DBM, which conforms with the Constitution and its enabling law, Republic Act (RA) 6770, on fiscal autonomy, that the appropriations of the OMB may not be reduced below the amount appropriated from the previous years.
The subcommittee submitted the proposed budgets of the two agencies for plenary deliberations.
