National Budget Circular 542, issued by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on August 29, 2012, and Republic Act 11975, otherwise known as the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for FY 2024, require all government agencies to maintain a Transparency Seal on their websites. Section 103 of the FY 2024 GAA provides the following:

Sec. 103. Transparency Seal. To enhance transparency and enforce accountability, all agencies of the government shall maintain a Transparency Seal to be posted on their websites. The Transparency Seal shall contain the following: (i) the agency’s mandates and functions, names of its officials with their position and designation, and contact information; (ii) approved budgets and corresponding targets, immediately upon approval of this Act; (iii) modifications made pursuant to the general and special provisions in this Act; (iv) annual procurement plan/s and contracts awarded with the winning supplier, contractor or consultant; (v) major activities or projects and their target beneficiaries; (vi) status of implementation, evaluation or assessment reports of said programs or projects; (vii) Budget and Financial Accountability Reports; (viii) Updated People’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Manual signed by head of agency, Updated One-Page FOI Manual and Agency FOI Reports; and (ix) annual reports on the status of income authorized by law to be retained or used and be deposited outside of the National Treasury, which shall include the legal basis for its retention or use, the beginning balance, income collected and its sources, expenditures, and ending balance for the preceding fiscal year.

The heads of the agencies and their web administrators or their equivalent shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with this Section.

A Transparency Seal, prominently displayed on the main page of the website of a particular government agency, is a certificate that it has complied with the requirements of Section 103. This Seal links to a page within the agency’s website which contains an index of downloadable items of each of the above-mentioned documents.