Mayor asks for P85.8M in first additional budget

Thursday, February 16, 2012

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama proposed an P85.8-million first supplemental budget (SB) that will include the Charter Day bonus of P7,000 for each City Hall employee.

If it’s approved, each employee will receive a total of P10,000 in bonuses on Charter Day, including the P3,000 allocation that was already appropriated in the annual budget.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

The budget, though, was not included in the agenda of the regular session yesterday as it was not submitted on time to the Office of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) Secretary.

Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young answered Rama’s comment that most of the members of the Council are not “employees but employers,” which is why they don’t value the importance of an anniversary bonus.

Young showed reporters his personal data record from the Social Security Services in 1975. It shows that Young earned a monthly income of P240 every month in November 1975. He explained that this just shows that he knows how it is to be an employee.

Young said he worked in two companies for two to three years before working in the family corporation and eventually establishing his own.

Rama has boasted of his experience as an employee, which he said was useful in his management of City Hall.

The first SB includes P76 million from the general fund and almost P9.7 million from the special accounts.

From the general fund alone, City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva certified P51 million in retained operating surplus from 2011.

Another P25 million was reclassified this year from capital outlay in 2011 to maintenance and other operating surplus, for financial assistance to Barangay Apas.

Budget Officer Nelfa Briones said the Barangay Apas infrastructure project appropriation has been unused for some years.

The SB also aims to bulk up the fund for the peace and order program by P1.134 million, the Cebu City Sports Commission by close to P3 million and the subsidy to special accounts by about P9.26 million, separate from the supplemental budget from the special a ccounts.

The P9.69-million SB for special accounts are all for personal services, which covers the P10,000 cash bonus for the 75th year of Cebu as a chartered city.

Almost half of the amount is for the personnel of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) while over P3.7 million is for the staff of Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

While Rama said he would put in the supplemental budget most of the budgetary items slashed by the council, this was not reflected in the proposal. Among the departments he said he would bulk up the budget through the SB are the Department of Public Services, Department of Manpower Development and Placement, and City Health Department.

There are almost 5,000 employees at City Hall.