Cebu budget draft cut by P1.1B

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

CEBU CITY -- The executive department has revisions of the proposed 2012 budget of the Cebu City Government. For one, the total amount is only between P10.5 billion and P10.775 billion, not the original P11.8 billion.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete cut short the second budget hearing on Tuesday, telling the Cebu City Council the executive department wants to defer the presentation of the P4 billion in projected revenues from economic enterprises.

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The local finance committee will submit a new certified statement of receipts today, Wednesday, Poblete said.

He admitted there were some “over-projections” that need to be corrected, as well as some “modest estimates” when collections can be larger.

“Offhand, we need to present good numbers because as you observed, the council really wants things to be explained,” Poblete later told reporters.

The council hopes that Poblete and the local finance committee will be able to make a more realistic projection.

Poblete clarified, though, that there will be no changes in the proposed budget per department.

Budget Officer Nelfa Briones said the total proposed budget is now P10.5 billion, while Assistant City Treasurer Emma Villarete, in a presentation with businessmen, gave the total amount of P10.775 billion.

Poblete said the difference will be clarified Wednesday with the council.

Mayor Michael Rama and Poblete explained it was just a matter of computation. Poblete pointed out the budget for the special accounts of about P1.6 billion was added to the general fund, when it is already part of the proposed appropriation for the general fund.

Personalities

Rama said this was noticed only when Villarete came into the picture.

Rama also wrote the council that whoever is available among the department heads can attend the budget hearing, although the mayor refused to call it a budget hearing but a budget conference.

He insisted it should be Villarete who will explain the budget.

Rama also said that members of the local finance committee – Budget Officer Nelfa Briones and City Planning and Development Coordinator Alipio Bacalso -- can attend the budget hearings but not at all times, because they are also busy with their duties as department heads.

Acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo is the third member of the local finance committee but was no longer acknowledged by Rama. She did not attend the budget hearing on Tuesday but attended the luncheon meeting that Rama called, along with her predecessor Ofelia Oliva, the mayor’s financial adviser.

In turn, Villarete was also not acknowledged by the council.

Since Camarillo was not in the budget hearing and there were questions from members of the council that only the City Treasurer’s Office can answer, Briones, who was at the podium to defend the budget, repeatedly asked the council to let Villarete answer some of the questions.

The council did not call on Villarete, though.

Typo

Rama said that if the Council will only do their job, there is no reason to talk about the possibility of a reenacted budget.

During the hearing, the council had the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) and the City Markets explain their proposed budgets of P189 million and P75 million, respectively. Both budgets are charged to special accounts.

Briones’s attention had to be called on inconsistent items in the certificate signed by the local finance committee and the document prepared by Citom Executive Director Rafael Yap.

Poblete called it a typographical error.

Citom is asking for over a hundred percent increase in its subsidy next year, from around P60 million this year to over P120 million for 2012.

Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. asked why the subsidy doubled but Citom only projected a P60-million income.

Yap explained the revenue he projected is actually P100 million but he only put on record P60 million, based on their actual collection this year. From a target P100-million revenue for this year, Citom can only accomplish P60 million because the proposal to increase parking fees from P15 to P20 was not passed.

Borrowings

Just like in the second supplemental budget, the council asked why “proceeds from borrowings” or opening a credit line is considered a source of fund when this has not been applied for. For the proposed annual budget, the City’s executive branch wants to borrow P2 billion.

But the Council wants Briones to check the law on the allowed annual debt ceiling, considering the City is still paying more or less P589 million a year for the South Road Properties loan.

When Poblete asked for a deferment to give the local finance committee a chance to submit a certified statement of receipts, Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young asked who will sign the document representing the City Treasurer’s Office.

“Tan-awon lang unya nato (Let’s just wait and see),” said Poblete.

In a related development, Mayor Rama formally asked the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) to replace Camarillo immediately.

Rama said he wants Assistant City Treasurer Villarete to defend and handle matters relating to the proposed 2011 budget.

‘No, they said’

The mayor wrote to BLGF after conducting last Wednesday a survey among the department heads on whether or not they believe Camarillo is capable of defending the budget before the City Council.

“And I got an overwhelming no,” the mayor said.

During his news conference Tuesday, Rama showed reporters the pieces of paper where the department heads wrote their answers, and said that most of them did not think Camarillo can defend the budget.

He informed the BLGF of the city officials’ stand.

“I would like to inform you that the administration of the City of Cebu has lost trust and confidence in the officer-in-charge of the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office. With this predicament, we respectfully and urgently request and urge your good office to immediately designate an OIC city treasurer considering that the Sanggunian already had scheduled dates for budget hearings,” Rama said in his letter to BLGF Executive Director Presentacion Montesa.

The letter was written last November 4 yet but was signed by the mayor only Wednesday.

Rama also asked the department heads who they think would be in the best position to defend the budget, and he said their answers were Villarete, City Administrator Poblete, City Assessor Eustaquio Cesa and former city treasurer Oliva.

When asked what role Camarillo would take, the mayor said she would still oversee the personnel of the City Treasurer’s Office until the BLGF appoints her replacement.

Payback

He did not cite any preferred appointee as treasurer, but that he will submit names to the BLGF if they will ask him to do so.

In a separate venue, he defended the executive budget proposal, pointing out that a complete drainage system alone, to prevent floods, would cost City Hall P3.9 billion.

Speaking at the 888 News Forum, Mayor Rama said that while he allocated in the executive budget for 2012 P500 million, the experts whose advice he sought said the City would need an additional P3.5 billion.

Rama said that aside from solving the drainage problem, his administration will also focus on road widening to decongest traffic and road concreting, instead of asphalting.

He said that Cebu City constituents were deprived of basic services for several years because billions were spent paying for a debt the City acquired to build the South Road Properties.

“I want payback,” Rama said. “It’s payback time for the people. The City Council must realize it. But if the City Council will slash it (the budget)? I will never object because the executive has spoken by presenting the budget and it’s up to the City Council to act on it.” (With Elias O. Baquero/Sun.Star Cebu)