Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Fire incidents eating up big chunk of CH funds
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
AT least 18 fire incidents in Cebu City cost the City Government some P14 million in assistance, eating up half of the total spending for calamities as of November this year.
Of the P78.8 million allocated for the City’s calamity fund, only P28.7 million has been earmarked for purchases that have approved purchase requests and payment vouchers.
Emergency purchases for disaster response when a drought hit the mountain barangays in May and repair of roads and bridges during the onslaught of rains in February were also charged to the calamity fund.
According to the City Budget Office’s records, the single biggest expense using the calamity fund was the rental of heavy equipment for rehabilitation of areas affected by heavy rains, which amounted to P4.93 million.
The purchases for the response to the dry spell ate up P3 million while dengue outbreak emergency purchases totaled P4.23 million.
A supplemental feeding program for underweight children was also charged to the calamity fund amounting to P2.4 million, as well as the purchase of hose and the transmission of spring water for agricultural activities in the mountain barangays, which cost P1 million.
A total of P28,773,717 was set aside for payment for the purchased items and services.
“But this does not mean the entire amount has been used. There are purchase requests for these items and sometimes there are items that were cancelled but just the same, we earmarked the amount so we will not have a problem if the suppliers collect payment,” City Budget Officer Nelfa Briones told Sun.Star Cebu.
Under the Local Government Code, five percent of the General Fund should be allocated for calamities. For 2007, the City’s calamity fund amount to P78,888,122.
With an appropriated balance of P50.1 million, the City is left with more than enough for the proposed purchase of surplus heavy equipment, construction of dams, repairs of roads and bridges that were damaged when storm Lando hit Cebu last month.
The City Council approved the use of calamity funds of up to P37.5 million for disaster response and preparations for storms that may hit Cebu in the coming months.
No purchases were made yet as of last week but the bids and awards committee is already canvassing one unit of backhoe and three units of bulldozer.
They are also processing the purchase requests for 10 units of chainsaw, five units of mudpump, two units of motorcycle and
20 units of communication equipment.
As for the City’s purchases for the fire victims, these included packed meals, GI sheets, plywood, compact boards, mats, mosquito nets and sacks of rice.
The items were bought for fire victims in Bara-ngays Sto. Niño, Tinago, Carreta, Basak San Nico-las, Mambaling, Sambag 2, Duljo Fatima, Lahug, San Nicolas Proper, Ermita, Day-as, Guada-lupe and Basak Pardo.
City Hall also spent some P784,000 for 11,214 packed meals for victims of the fire that hit Barangay Tipolo in Mandaue City last August.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (December 5, 2007 issue)
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