Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Spend funds for calamities: COA to Talisay
By Garry Cabotaje
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Don't drain Talisay City’s calamity fund.
This was the advice of the Commission on Audit (COA) to the City Government as it noted that about 95 percent or P8.6 million of its P11.1-million calamity fund in 2005 was spent for disaster preparedness program.
The state auditors found that the City only spent P174,880 for actual calamity, which was the fire in Sitio Nonoc, Barangay Tabunok on May 21, 2005.
The blaze injured a 53-year-old woman and her daughter and displaced 12 families, prompting City Hall to declare Sitio Nonoc under a state of calamity.
“The expenditures for disaster preparedness are considered excessive,” the COA, in its audit report, said.
Of the P11.1-million calamity budget, the City’s total expenditures were P8,788,161.60, leaving a balance of P2,402,302.71, it said.
“This balance is very minimal to the very purpose this fund is intended for,” the COA said.
In its recommendation, state auditors advised the Talisay City Government to adopt “adequate controls” in using the calamity fund through a resolution of the City Council.
The move, it said, is to establish the allocation for specific program of expenditures and “satisfactorily deliver the required services if an actual calamity will occur in a budget year.”
Joint circulars of the Department of Budget and Management and Department of Interior and Local Government provide the guidelines in using the five percent calamity fund, which includes disaster preparedness, of a local government unit.
Sought for comment, Mayor Socrates “Soc” Fernandez said the way the calamity fund was used was a collegial decision of the department heads and not solely his.
Fernandez said it is important to spend a significant amount for disaster preparedness, insisting that it could help a lot in times of emergencies.
The fund was also used to buy heavy equipment, such as a dump truck, backhoe and pay loader, and to strengthen the dike in Sitio Litmon Barangay Dumlog, he said.
“The decision was not the outcome from the mind of the mayor alone but from the department heads. Anyway, they (COA) are not the ones running the government,” he said.
Last December, the City Council charged P3 million to the calamity fund to expedite the construction of the sanitary landfill in Barangay Tapul, a hilly area.
The City was complying with Republic Act 9003, the law on solid waste management that mandates all local government units to have their own sanitary landfill.
Just last week, the City Council approved the resolution of Councilor Arturo Bas charging the City’s disaster preparedness program worth P5 million to the five percent lump sum appropriation for calamity fund.
The amount will be used to repair heavy equipment and damaged seawall; purchase of service vehicles and communication equipment; and conduct fire prevention activities.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 1, 2006 issue)
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