Cebu City Hall’s fuel spending reduced by half

CEBU -- Cebu City Hall’s fuel allocation has been depleted, prompting Mayor Michael Rama to cut by half the monthly supply of fuel of City-owned vehicles.

This, as the mayor told the General Services Office (GSO) to release fuel allocations only to government vehicles that bear the seal of the City and the sticker “For Official Use Only.”

For the fuel cut, Rama recently issued a memorandum imposing austerity measures to cope with the lack of budget.

Under the one-page memorandum, the monthly supply of fuel for the mayor is now only 200 liters, 200 liters for the vice mayor, 150 liters for the city councilors, 100 liters for the department heads, and 80 liters for the assistant department heads.

Rama also cut the monthly fuel supply of City-owned and operated motor vehicles.

The City’s multicabs will now only be given 50 liters of fuel, 100 liters for light vehicles, and 20 liters for motorcycles. The fuel for the heavy equipment should be only 50 percent of their average monthly consumption during the past six months.

General Services Office (GSO) chief Engr. Rolando Ardosa said those that will be affected by the fuel cut are the road concreting and asphalting projects of the City since they use heavy equipment.

Exempted in the fuel cut, Ardosa said, are the garbage trucks and the vehicles issued to the Cebu City Police Office.

Before the cut on fuel allocation, Ardosa said the mayor used to get 500 liters of fuel monthly, 500 liters for the vice mayor, 300 for the city councilors, 150 to 200 liters for the department heads, and 150 for the assistant department heads.

Also, the city’s multicabs used to get 150 liters of fuel per month, 150 to 200 liters for light vehicles, 30 to 50 liters for motorcycles and 1,000 liters for heavy equipments.

In an interview on Friday, Ardosa said that the P100-million approved budget for fuel allocation this year has already been used up.

Ardosa said the supply of diesel will only last until September 3 while the gasoline will only be good for one month.

So as not to hamper the delivery of services, Ardosa hopes that the executive department’s proposed P237.4-million second supplemental budget (SB 2) for this year will be approved soon.

Under the proposed SB 2, a P20-million has been set aside to cover the purchase of gasoline, oil and lubricants for City Hall and barangay vehicles for the remaining months of the year.

The executive department is said to submit back to the City Council the proposed SB 2 next week. The SB 2 was earlier returned by the council, for review and refinement.

In another memorandum, Rama told GSO to only release fuel allocation to government vehicles that are properly identified.

Some of the government vehicles particularly in the barangays reportedly don’t bear the seal of the City and a sticker that says “For Official Use Only.”

Both memorandums issued by the mayor will be implemented starting today, Saturday. (PDF/Sun.Star Cebu)