Gov’t budget increases for personnel salaries

Some 25,000 new hires, mostly Department of Education staff and policemen, helped push government spending on salaries and benefits by 14 percent year on year to reach P84.5 billion in the first two months of 2013.

According to the Department of Budget and Management, the DepEd hired 21,110 teaching and non-teaching employees while there were 3,000 inductees to the police force, ranked Police Officer I.

Other new hires included 500 jail officers and 500 firemen, both groups under the Department of Interior and Local Government.

DBM data also showed that spending on personnel services increased because of the fourth tranche of the Salary Standardization Law III as well as bigger payouts for retirement gratuity and terminal leave benefits.

The surge in this expense was observed amid a 14-percent jump in overall expenditures for January and February, which reached P282 billion.

In other expense items, disbursements for infrastructure and other capital outlays during the two months increased by 40.8 percent while those for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) jumped by 40.5 percent.

The increase in MOOE was attributed mainly to the continued implementation of key social service programs like the conditional cash transfer program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad reiterated that higher expenditure levels resulted from budgetary reforms that the Aquino administration is continuously implementing.