Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) has been scrapped by the Dept. of Budget and Management (DBM) after fake SARO's were discovered last year. In a statement, DBM said departments and agencies no longer need to secure SARO's to authorize the release of funds for certain projects. Instead they can source funds using the 2014 General Appropriations Act (GAA). Abad said some budgetary items require clearance and approval before the funds can be released to the respective agencies. Abad added that the GAA will help to eliminate delays in fund releases since there will no longer be need to secure SARO's and other release documents. He also noted that the GAA will prevent irregularities in the release of public funds to agencies. Earlier the DBM and Dept. of Agriculture (DA) appealed to the National Bureau of Investigation to probe reports that there were fake SARO's . Abad, however denied the reports that his department had released Php 879 million through a fake SARO.
