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Angara sponsors bill extending 2021 GAA until 2022: Sen. Sonny Angara, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, sponsors on Monday, December 6, 2021, House Bill No. (HBN) 10373 or An Act Extending the Availability of the 2021 Appropriations to December 31, 2022. Angara said under the cash-based budget system, which was adopted by the government since 2019, all agencies and government instrumentalities are tasked to spend all their appropriations within the fiscal year that these were allotted. Unobligated funds, he said, are returned to the National Treasury. “Adopting such a system is no doubt a step in the right direction. But such a systemic change is not easily realized, most especially when something as cataclysmic as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic makes it difficult for government to operate normally and spend its funds efficiently,” Angara said. Citing data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Angara said that as of September, 2021, only 74.5 percent of the allotments have been obligated. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)