Monday, November 06, 2006 Services guarded even if budget gets recycled
SOME Cebu City councilors believe reenacting the 2006 annual budget for next year after the executive department withdrew its proposal last week will not affect the delivery of services.
That’s because this year’s budget is more or less the same amount as the one initially proposed by the executive department for 2007.
Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera said they will just wait for the executive department’s decision whether or not it will ask for the 2006 annual budget’s reenactment instead.
The City Council will also discuss the budget in its session this Wednesday, said Pesquera, who heads the council committee on budget and finance.
Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. said that because Mayor Tomas Osmeña uses the “skin-and-bones” financial plan, which covers major expenditures and relegates other expenses on supplemental budgets, the budget will be basically similar to this year’s.
Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa agreed, saying that unless a new and major endeavor needs an allocation for next year, the 2007 annual budget will seem like a reenacted 2006 budget.
Last Oct. 24, Osmeña ordered to pull out at once all copies of the 200-page breakdown of the 2007 annual budget from the offices of the vice mayor, 18 councilors and the secretariat.
He gave the order after learning that some items intended for the 2007 first supplemental budget were inserted in the main budget.
The mayor also lashed out at City Budget Officer Nelfa Briones, a member of the local finance committee, for refusing to heed his instruction to “follow the skin-and-bones budget of 2006.”
The mayor wanted any change in the main budget to be placed in the supplemental budget.
It was reported that the mayor is opting to just adopt the 2006 budget for next year.
Jagmoc said that based on the executive department’s withdrawn proposal, the new budget is P200 million over the P2.28 billion approved for this year.
Abellanosa said the withdrawal of the proposal is “part of the refining process.”
Basic services will not be affected even with a reenacted budget because the items are “well thought out,” he added.
Besides, Abellanosa said, there is a good chance the City will not resort to reenacting the 2006 budget.
“If there were insertions and the mayor does not like it, it is his prerogative. We are waiting for the budget, which the executive branch is reviewing,” the councilor added.
The mayor is also thinking of having the first 2007 supplemental budget approved even before the year ends.
The Department of Budget and Management, however, has reservations on the plan because it contradicts the guidelines in the implementing rules of the Local Government Code.
The code provides that a supplemental budget for the ensuing fiscal year can only be passed after the treasurer certifies that the income for the succeeding year was already realized.
This could be done only after the City Accounting Office and the City Treasurer’s Office close the books of accounts to determine the surplus or savings from the preceding year.
Closing the books of accounts is done at the end of a fiscal year, and local government units are usually able to do so only in the first quarter of the succeeding year. (RHM)
