Friday, September 05, 2008 P114M for 2nd extra budget sought
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña sought the City Council’s approval of the P114-million supplemental budget, the City’s second supplemental measure so far this year.
The supplemental budget 2 will be funded by the City’s P111.7-million Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share from previous years, which the City will collect from the National Government through a loan.
Included in the budget is the P30-million allocation for fuel supply from September to November and the P5-million customs dues for the Kaohsiung buses donated by the Kaohsiung City Government to Cebu City.
Although Mayor Tomas Osmeña already approved the inclusion of the P14-million payment for the principal amount of the expropriated property of Matilde S. Palicte, the amount did not make it to the final draft of the supplemental budget.
Some P32 million is also being requested for the Office of the Mayor, including the additional P2 million for travel expenses of city officials and P3.4 million for the South Road Properties Management Office (SRP-MO).
The final draft was presented to the City Council during their regular session last Wednesday and referred to the council committee on budget and finance.
A budget hearing was originally set today, but was postponed to Sept. 12.
Councilor Jose Daluz III, chairman of the committee on budget and finance, said he will ask the local finance committee during the budget hearing why the Palicte property payment was not included.
“I don’t know the details yet so we will have the chance to ask them how they intend to spend the P114 million during the budget hearing,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
The proposed amount is in addition to the P2.52 billion 2008 General Fund and the first supplemental budget amounting to P345.27 million, approved last May.
In a separate interview, City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said the payment for the Palicte property was already authorized by the mayor, after the court issued an order for the garnishment of the City’s funds.
He said, though, that not all the items approved by the mayor for inclusion were carried in the final draft.
“There were several items that he authorized to be included in the supplemental budget but were left out, including the Palicte property payment. So we will just propose the third supplemental budget immediately after the second one is approved,” Fernandez explained.
Supplemental budget 2 also includes the P2.4-million counterpart fund for the United Nations Children’s Fund programs, P1.4 million for the validation of the voters’ list by the Commission on Elections Cebu City and some P5.2 million for personal services, terminal leave pay and maintenance and other operating expenditures of the different departments.
Under the account of the Office of the Mayor, some P21 million was listed for furniture and equipment outlay and motor vehicles outlay for the different departments and offices at City Hall. LCR)
