Thursday, November 06, 2008 Mandaue sets fuel limits for officials
THE MANDAUE City Council has set fuel allocation limits for all city officials and prescribed penalties for violators.
The City Hall Fuel Consumption Ordinance of 2008 covers all city officials from the mayor, vice mayor to department heads.
Under the ordinance, the mayor is allocated 500 liters a month; vice mayor, 300 liters; department heads, 150 liters; and assistant department heads, 120 liters.
The ordinance also assigns two vehicles each for the mayor and vice mayor.
The measure also specifies that all vehicles, except for the service vehicles of the mayor and vice mayor, must be parked in designated spaces at the City Hall every night.
The ordinance specifies violations such as exceeding fuel limits, juggling fuel allocations, failing to submit consumption report, failing to secure trip tickets during travel and failing to return vehicles to the designate car barn at night.
Those who violate the ordinance face a P5,000 fine or 30-day imprisonment or both, at the court’s discretion. They also face administrative sanctions of 10 days’ suspension for the first offense and termination from service for the second offense.
The ordinance names the City Administrator’s Office (CAO) as implementing agency. It will take effect a day after its publication in at least one newspaper of general circulation.
One of the reasons the ordinance was crafted was when opposition councilors discovered what they said was an excessive use of fuel. The councilors cited as example the 30 liters of gasoline consumed daily from July 2007 to Aug. 10 2007 by the City Budget Officer.
Mandaue City Administrator Briccio Boholst earlier said “this is just a small part of the whole picture.”
Boholst said fuel consumption decreased after Aug. 10, 2007 when City Hall imposed stricter measures. He said this resulted in at least P1 million in savings a month.
Mayor Jonas Cortes said in September that the decrease in fuel consumption enabled Mandaue City to save P8.78 million in the first half of this year.
Cortes earlier complained that when he took over as mayor, all gas meters of vehicles were not functioning, making it hard for them to monitor fuel use. (OCP)
