Question & AnswerQ&A (DBM NATIONAL BUDGET CIRCULAR NO. 488)
CMIs or lump-sum amounts are specific appropriations included in certain agency budgets intended for transfer to their Operating Units (OUs) for allocation and disbursement purposes.
Allotments were released to the concerned agency as reflected in the General Appropriations Act, and transfers to the OUs were then made through the Sub-Allotment Advice (SAA) or Letter Advice Authority (LAA).
1) Cash requirements for SAA charged against available Net Cash Allocations (NCA) of recipient OUs or additional NCAs released by DBM; 2) Cash requirements for LAA transferred through issuance of funding checks to OUs by the agency.
The practice was discontinued to eliminate the cash balances maintained by OUs from funding checks, which were considered as cash drawdown/utilization of Bureau of the Treasury funds although the cash remained with authorized government banks. This helps enhance proper cash management and accountability.
They were advised to immediately remit said cash balances to the National Treasury on or before June 30, 2003.
The transfer of allotment to OUs shall be done through Sub-Allotment Advice (SAA). The covering cash support shall be through either additional NCA issued by DBM directly to the recipient OUs or via a Notice of Transfer of Allocation (NTA) instructing the transfer from the department/agency's NCA available book balance to the OUs’ Modified Disbursement Scheme-Government Servicing Bank (MDS-GSB) accounts.
The MDS-GSB is a government servicing bank account used to facilitate the transfer of cash support through Notices of Transfer of Allocation (NTA) from the department/agency’s NCA to the regular MDS accounts of the Operating Units (OUs), ensuring cash support without issuance of physical funding checks.
Agencies must provide the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) concerned offices with a report of the transferred allotment and/or Notices of Transfer of Allocation made, which will serve as the basis for determining the adjusted funding levels of the agencies concerned.
The guidelines took effect immediately upon adoption on May 22, 2003.