By: Zer Jethro Rodmell A. Roscuata

To achieve its goal to be one of the first regional offices to implement Budget and Treasury Management System (BTMS), DepED Bicol conducted a three-day virtual training workshop of its power users from April 19 to 21, 2021.

The training, which was conducted by the Deped Central Office under the leadership of Asec. Ramon Fiel Abcede and Director Bettina D. Aquino, achieved its objective of capacitating the identified power users in the areas of BTMS Cycles 1 and 2. Most important of the transactions in the said cycles are Purchase Requisition, Purchase Order and Disbursement Vouchers.

78 power users, including the very own Regional Director Gilbert T. Sadsad, were initially identified from the various functional and support divisions of the Regional Office. During the training, some of the divisions were planning to add more power users in the office to capacitate more – if not all of the workforce. In relation to that, it was agreed that the responsibility centers are to be identified in the next meetings with the Central Office.

Ms. Mirasol Miranda, with the assistance of Mr. Arjohn Jaye Palomeno, led the online training for the entire duration. They first introduced the BTMS Training environment, showed how to navigate through the BTMS and engaged the power users in the first-hand use of the system through assigning user accounts. Internet connectivity has been a minor issue but the power users manifested their eagerness to learn. Some of the power users even volunteered to demonstrate creation of purchase request, purchase order and disbursement vouchers.

“I think the BTMS would bring good change not just to Finance Division but also the the whole Regional Office as well. The training gets somehow fast sometimes. Thankfully, the guide sheet is also available. I just hope that it would be more user-friendly in the future”, said Ilya Vargas, one of the power users and most participative in the demonstrations.

Ms. Teresa Arcayera, Chief Administrative Officer for Finance Division, said that the training workshop was supposedly held prior to March this year. Though delayed by tight schedule of activities in the regional office, the Finance Division is still committed to begin live implementation of the BTMS in the current year 2021 with reservations in the area of financial reporting.

The training followed the Virtual Orientation on the BTMS held last February 22, 2021. Next step is the training of Finance Division power users.