Wednesday, December 19, 2007 City Council backs Jonas on his P44M extra budget
MANDAUE City’s councilors approved without cuts the mayor’s supplemental budget proposal for P44 million in a special session yesterday, paving the way for bonuses and the purchase of police motorcycles.
The supplemental budget, the sixth this year, covers the bonuses of non-regular employees who were still employed as of Oct. 31, 2007. Vice Mayor Carlo Pontico Fortuna said about 1,000 personnel will benefit from this.
The City Council earlier passed a resolution urging the mayor to also include those who rendered months of service but were already out before the cut-off date.
“I hope the mayor will consider. It’s Christmas and like us, they also have to eat,” said Councilor Emil Rosal.
Mayor Jonas Cortes welcomed the council’s move and said he will discuss with the finance committee the proposal to grant bonuses to the other employees. Thumbs up
Rosal, who heads the council committee on appropriation and budget, gave a thumbs up on the mayor’s proposed P44,317,102 supplemental budget and moved for the adoption of his committee report, “without deductions.”
All the councilors present agreed without any objection.
The supplemental budget includes P9.8 million in bonuses for program and project employees; P6.7 million for other bonuses and allowances; and P2.43 million for maintenance of roads and bridges.
These non-regular employees include job-order workers, clean and green program employees, and Traffic Enforcement and Management (Team) personnel.
The supplemental budget also includes the purchase of motorcycles, intended for the police, worth P600,000 and communication equipment worth P250,000.
Fortuna said the supplemental budget also includes City Hall’s Christmas party on Friday, which will cost P500,000.
He added that the P9.8 million allocated in the sixth supplemental budget is enough to include bonuses for those whose employment with City Hall ended before the October cut-off date.
If an employee worked throughout the year, Fortuna said, the worker gets an additional month pay on top of his pay this December. He gets a percentage if he worked for a few months on or after Oct. 31, 2007.
As for those who left the service before Oct. 31, the City Council earlier passed a resolution “requesting the finance committee through Mayor Jonas Cortes to source funds and grant Christmas gifts to all program and job-order employees.”
Rosal explained that it would be unfair for those who worked from January to September (but left before Oct. 31) not to get a bonus, while those who only worked for a month after that date get a percentage of their monthly pay.
“That’s fine,” was the mayor’s reaction on the request. The mayor said he was grateful that the council approved his proposal without any cuts.
Fortuna said a job-order or program employee receives a monthly pay of P4,730, while a traffic enforcer gets P5,850 a month.
Clean and green program personnel get P2,600 as a monthly honorarium. (OCP)
