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With the recent partnership of the department with the local government units, specifically the Leagues of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) in classroom building construction under a counter-parting scheme, DepEd expects to generate more savings from the school building program. With this, DepEd will implement stricter measures to ensure that these savings from SBP will be utilized appropriately.
"With the pledge of the local government units to help the department in building more classrooms, we anticipate that we would have a remarkable increase in the department’s savings, which can then be used to address other shortages such as teachers, textbooks, school seats, and water and sanitation facilities. With the increased savings, we should also be stricter in realigning funds under SBP for other purposes,” noted Education Secretary Armin Luistro.
DepEd’s Physical Facilities and Schools’ Engineering Division, Office of the Planning Service (PFSED-OPS), regularly receives requests for authority to utilize savings from the Engineering and Administrative Overhead (EAO) under the DepEd budget for school building project for other purposes.
In this regard, DepEd has issued Order No. 20, series 2011 that states that the Department shall only authorize the use of savings generated from the unutilized allotment under the SBP if it is contained in the Special Provision of the DepEd Budget under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the corresponding fiscal year.
Luistro said that, "DepEd, as an organization, should be more responsive to the needs of public education. We should not only focus on reassessing our programs when we talk about quality education, but more importantly, we should always keep in mind that the resources we are spending to implement programs and initiate reforms are public funds. Hence, it is just right to be more frugal and prudent in using these resources.”
The guidelines specify that the requesting party will be required to submit an original copy of the request with justification, a certification from the requesting principal or school head that the original project is already completed, a certification from the Division Accountant / Schools Division / City Superintendent that the original project incurred savings, and special allotment release order (SARO) or sub-allotment release order covering the original project before the requests are evaluated and approved to utilize savings from SBP.
All projects are subject to the provisions of Republic Act (R.A.) No. 9184 (Government Procurement Reform Act) and its Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations.
Source: DepEd Press Release - https://www.affordablecebu.com/