Good news to schools without fiscal autonomy

Good news to schools without fiscal autonomy

The Department of Education, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), and Philippine Veterans Bank officially signed today, October 17, the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the opening and maintenance of bank accounts of DepEd non-implementing unit (non-IU) schools pursuant to COA-DBM-DepEd Joint Circular No. 2019-1.



DepEd non-implementing unit (non-IU) schools, are schools which doesn't have fiscal autonomy. They do not have their own plantilla especially financial staff to take over financial transactions. They get their Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) from division offices in the form of cash advances credited to LBP account of school heads. Unlike implementing units or fiscal autonomous schools where their fund for PS & MOOE are directly from Department of Budget and Management (DBM) credited to respective school accounts in LBP. Simply put, IU's maintains set of book of accounts, autonomous in their fiscal transactions & reports directly to DBM & COA.

The said Joint Circular authorizes school heads of non-IUs to open a bank account under the name of the school where the cash advance for school operating budget and program funds shall be deposited. Under the existing set up, cash requirements of DepEd non-IUs were released to the respective school heads through cash advance.

Secretary Briones emphasized that at least 42,000 school heads will now be given the chance to manage their cash advances more securely in financial institutions. "This is a very important financial reform that will create the environment which will encourage our accountable officials to maintain the standards of honesty," the Education chief said.