THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has returned the P8.1 billion annual budget of the Cebu City Government due to some deficiencies.

But Councilor Margarita Osmeña, who chairs the committee on budget and finance clarified that deficiencies were already corrected and the updated budget documents were already submitted back to the DBM.

In a letter addressed to the City Council, DMB 7 Director Imelda Lacera pointed out three deficiencies of the annual budget.

The deficiencies include the computation of Personal Service Limitation, which excluded the income and appropriation of the special account.

BDM also pointed out that some of the documents of the annual budget were not signed and were not certified true copy.

“Please be informed that all Local Budget Preparation Forms supporting the annual budget including other supporting documents shall be signed by responsible signatories pursuant to the provisions of the Budget Operations Manual, 2016 Edition. In light of the foregoing, we are returning the FY 2019 Annual Budget, Appropriation Ordinance and all the supporting documents without prejudice to its resubmission when said deficiencies are rectified,” Lacera said in the letter.

City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia said there is nothing major with the observation and all deficiencies were already corrected.

“We can still use the budget unless BDM says that the budget is inoperative.

Basically what the letter says is very minor and we already corrected it. The budget document was submitted back to DMB last week,” she said.