Friday, February 15, 2008 No double appropriation for road project: Cortes
A MANDAUE City finance official said the P20-million loan for the Tabok road-widening project has not materialized.
City Administrator Briccio Boholst suggested that the City Council declare a previous budget ordinance invalid to erase doubts.
He said Mayor Jonas Cortes is apprehensive because there was already a P20-million supplemental budget for the project.
“Basin ma-doble na unya ang P20 million, we are just being prudent and careful,” he said.
But the loan has not been released yet, said Assistant City Treasurer Cipriano Jamora, who faced the councilors last Wednesday.
He said the loan contract was approved and ready for release but Cortes did not sign it.
Jamora told the councilors there are 14 pending vouchers in his office worth P11.9 million intended for payment of lots affected by the project.
He said individual lot owners, who already executed deeds and transferred their properties in favor of the government, are waiting for payment.
Councilor Emil Rosal said that of the P20 million, P14 million is intended for lot and real property acquisition while the remaining P6 million is for the construction of the road.
This means the P14 million for lot acquisition has not yet been fully exhausted.
Hogwash
Councilor Victor Biaño described Cortes’ reason for not signing the loan as hogwash.
Another opposition councilor, Emil Rosal, accused Cortes of pretending not to know when in fact the mayor was part of the council that passed the supplemental budget.
Boholst said this is not true. He said Cortes knows that the Tabok highway is a bottleneck and easing traffic is one of the priorities of the administration.
He said the mayor also promised Tabok Barangay Captain Dario Tariman to support the project.
The previous council earlier approved Supplemental Budget 1 with a provision “to be sourced out from loan proceeds.”
“But that cannot be done,” Boholst said. Quoting Cortes, he said one cannot pass a supplemental budget without city treasurer’s certification of availability of funds.
Otherwise, it is presumed that there is an existing fund, he said.
He said Cortes is worried he might approve a loan when there is already an existing fund for the project.
But once the council declares the ordinance invalid and illegal, there’s no reason Cortes will not sign the release of the P20-million loan, Boholst said. (OCP)
