THE Cebu City Government executive department will reduce its proposed second supplemental budget (SB 2) this year by at least P200 million following questions on its source of funds.
City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia said they will only be requesting for at least P400 million of the P664.2 million additional budget they had initially proposed.
This, after the City Council asked why the executive department wants to use the P257-million unappropriated balance of this year’s P5.89-billion budget when the fiscal year has not ended yet.
In an interview yesterday, Gumia said they will prioritize in the reduced budget the payment for current operating expenses or obligations of the City Government for July to December this year.
The items under the current operating expenditures are the P15 million for the City’s burial assistance program; P8.4 million for the services of the City Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Team; P3.2 million honorarium for the members of the different special bodies of the Office of the Mayor; P10.8 million for personnel services, and the P211 million aid to the city barangays.
Also included are the P56 million for the tipping fee of the City for its garbage disposal in a private sanitary landfill in Consolacion; P1.1 million incentives for the policemen serving the city; P2.4 million aid to the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team and the P6 million intelligence expense, among many others.
Gumia said the items, which will not be covered after the reduced budget, are those listed under the capital outlay.
Those that may be put on hold are: the P15-million budget for new vehicles; the P27 million for traffic lights improvement; the P30 million for asphalting of roads and the P15 million for lot acquisition in Barangay Sapangdaku for the Sapangdaku Elementary School.
Other items that may have to wait are the P10-million budget for site development projects; the P3-million budget for new vehicles for the barangays; the P10 million for the construction of the Lorega Public Market and the P2.2-million budget for the renovation of the City Legal Office.
Gumia said, though, that the local finance committee will finalize the items for inclusion in the proposed SB 2 on Sept. 8 yet.
The committee will then discuss these with the City Council committee on budget and finance before endorsing this to the legislative body for its approval.
Councilor Margarita Osmeña, head of the council committee on budget and finance, in a separate interview yesterday, confirmed that she was informed that the proposed SB 2 will be slashed.
She hopes to meet with the members of the local finance committee soon to finalize the proposed budget.
The local finance committee is composed of representatives from the City Budget Office, the City Treasurer’s Office, the City Administrator’s Office, the City Accounting Office and the City Planning and Development Office.