NEGROS Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer denied there is “pork barrel” inserted in the recently approved P4.3-billion budget for 2020.
Ferrer said the members of the provincial board including the vice governor did not insert any budget for their projects.
“It only happens in Congress. Here in the province, we only have a small budget,” the vice governor pointed out.
He said that whatever projects and programs Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson implements, “we are all part of it.”
We can always request from the governor because he controls the budget, he said.
During the term of former governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., each elected board member has a special project allocation (SPA).
The SPA is a budget set aside by the Office of the Governor for special projects requested by the Vice Governor and SP members.
Each elected board member had an SPA of P1 million to P2 million per quarter while the ex officio members representing the villages and the councilors league got P1.5 million.
On Wednesday, the provincial board unanimously approved the 2020 budget amounting to P4.3 billion.
The bulk of the proposed P4.3 billion proposed budget for 2020 will go to personal services (PS) of the provincial government of Negros Occidental at P2.1 billion.
A total of P780 million will go to maintenance and other operating expenses and P1.2 billion to special purpose appropriations.
The General Fund for 2020 is P4.2 billion, and P121 million will come from Economic Enterprise Department operations.
The general fund budget for 2020 will come from tax revenue of P98,000,000, non tax revenue of P379, 957, 719 million and the Internal Revenue Allotment of P3,725,935,964 for a total of P4,203,893,683. (TDE)