Team Rama city councilors question non-release of their phone allowances

Councilor Joel Garganera of Team Rama confers with Sisinio Andales of BOPK after the Cebu City council session on tuesday. Earlier that day, during a city hall budget hearing, Garganera complained that Team Rama councilors had not been given their phone allowances since assuming office last July. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

TEAM Rama councilors chided the General Services Office (GSO) for not granting them their monthly communication allowance of P5,000.

In a budget hearing on Tuesday, Councilor Joel Garganera questioned why Team Rama-allied councilors had not been given their communication allowance since assuming office last July.

“In the previous administration, all councilors availed of this. But now, it has been five months already, we were not able to avail,” Garganera said.

In response, GSO head Ronaldo Malacora explained that this was due to an executive order issued by Mayor Tomas Osmeña which required all those wanting to avail of the communication allowance to make a request to the mayor and seek his prior approval.

Councilor Joy Pesquera, who heads the committee on budget and finance, said there should be no need for councilors to ask for the mayor’s approval on their communication allowance since it was part of the benefits of their position.

“We don’t have to ask authorization from the mayor. It never happened that the councilors were denied of their benefit. The only time that we ask for permission from the mayor is when we have gone beyond the limit. I hope you will take that into account,” she told Malacora.

GSO has a total approved budget of P6.3 million for mobile telephone expenses for employees, city officials and department or office heads.

From the fund, only P2.78 million has, so far, been utilized as of October, according to Malacora,

For next year, GSO is asking for a similar budget of P6 million for mobile telephone expenses which led Pesquera to joke that the committee might as well approve a zero allocation for the communication allowance so that everybody else will suffer like them.

The GSO is asking for a total budget of P553.7 million for 2017.

Among the major expenses for the GSO include: office supplies (P20.7 million), rent expenses (P12 million), water expenses (P13 million), electricity expenses (P180 million), landline telephone expenses (P10 million), gasoline, oil and lubricants expenses (P90 million), janitorial services (P17 million), security services (P45 million) and supplies and materials for motor vehicles (P30 million).

Meanwhile, Councilor Raymond Garcia asked the GSO to look into reports that some barangay officials used city-issued vehicles for their own personal affairs.