MANILA -- When asked about what she wants to be known for as Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman was quick to respond— the one who maximizes technology and enhances transparency in the budgetary process.

Secretary Pangandaman made the statement during a recent interview with SMNI. Under her leadership, the Budget Secretary vowed to strengthen the use of technology to enhance bureaucratic efficiency, including in government fiscal reporting.

“We want to maximize really the use of technology for our reporting system. Ngayon kasi medyo manu-mano. I think it’s about time for us to have something that is transparent to everyone. Like when you see it on our website, it’s on time, and then, you’ll be able to analyze more efficiently and quickly,” Secretary Pangandaman said.

To achieve this, Secretary Pangandaman highlighted the development and implementation of the Budget and Treasury Management System (BTMS) as one of the major projects of the DBM.

As a centralized database, BTMS will facilitate the generation of vital information on government financial transactions; enable real-time mapping of transactions, from purchase to payment; and allow expedient and accurate financial management, improved data governance, and enhanced oversight control.

The key objective of the BTMS is to achieve the future state of public financial management, where all spending agencies would capture government transactions at source using the BTMS as the sole accounting and fiscal reporting system.

Secretary Pangandaman further said that she intends to enhance transparency and accountability in the DBM to promote ease of public access to information.

“The fund, the money that we allocate for our people, pera n’yo ‘yan e. Pera ‘yan ng taong bayan. Galing ‘yan sa buwis na binabayad natin. So as much as possible, I want sana for people to see na ‘yung mga binabayad nila na buwis, they also see kung ano at saang proyekto o programa ginagamit ng gobyerno.” (DBM)