Public Service Announcement: Detailed Timetable for 2012 Budget Call

Detailed Timetable for 2011 Budget Call

(To enlarge the graphic, just click on it)

Editor's note: As a public service, we are embedding above the detailed timetable for the 2011 Budget Call of all national government agencies and institutions as specified by the Department of Budget and Managment (see: http://www.dbm.gov.ph/index.php?pid=14). This would include all State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), including the University of the Philippines System.

It is expected that the 2012 Budget Call will follow a similar timetable to the 2011 Budget Call with SUCs, including U.P. having to submit their proposed budgets on or around May 17, 2012.

Using the 2011 embedded budget timetable above as a template (the 2012 detailed timetable is not yet publicly available), the first quarter of this year can be maximized by a responsible sitting U.P. President by consulting all relevant sectors within the University of the Philippines System about the proposed 2012 budget with utmost transparency so as to create a unity of purpose as the U.P. System faces a suspicious DBM which has a mindset to literally cut U.P.'s budget down as much as possible.

An open consultation is preferable to a surreptitious submission of U.P.'s budget to DBM by U.P.'s top management, as DBM officials will be asking very detailed questions from U.P. officials about what alternative sources of funds U.P. currently has; whether these are properly accounted for in the eyes of the Commission on Audit and what expenditures U.P. has and where the funds are going to (with feedback again from COA if these are being properly utilized).

Since zero-based budgeting is being employed by a DBM as a surgical tool to whittle down U.P.'s budget, each line item that has a potential of being vetoes needs to be justified by the actual beneficiaries which basically means that the current U.P. administration needs to be as transparent as possible in consulting the end users.

In budgeting, a democratic consultation of beneficiaries is called the top-down and bottom-up approach which essentially is a meeting of minds between management and the end users. Many organizational entities prefer the top-down-and-bottom-up approach rather than a pure top-down approach, while although faster is less democratic and has the added disadvantage of disallowing the enthusiastic and interactive participation of the end users in the budgetary process.

With a meeting of the minds, the budget becomes a kind of social contract between the different sectors in the U.P. System, and once unity is attained, it becomes a lighter task to pressure the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III, through DBM to increase U.P.'s budget in 2012.