Zaballero (File Photo)
THE Cebu Provincial Board rejected the proposed 2014 budget of the municipal government of Dumanjug due to irregularities reportedly found in documents submitted by the town council’s secretary.
In Monday’s regular session, the PB approved the Budget and Appropriation Committee’s resolution to return the town’s budget ordinance for 2014 until “a true and legitimate SB Secretary” is recognized.
PB Member Grecilda “Gigi” Sanchez, head of the appropriations committee, noted a number of “irregularities and inconsistencies” in the budget’s supporting documents.
A resolution which contained the town’s proposed 2014 annual budget bore the name and signature of “temporary” municipal council secretary Emmylou Cabonillas.
However, another resolution which contained a supplemental budget ordinance from barangay Balaygtiki in Dumanjug was signed and approved by the town’s other municipal secretary, Nerio Aquino.
Mayor Nelson Garcia designated Cabonillas as the municipal council secretary last year.
His appointment of Cabonillas resulted in administrative and criminal charges filed against him by vice mayor Efren Gica before the Cebu Provincial Board and the Ombudsman-Visayas.
Inconsistencies
Gica appointed Aquino to the same post.
He said Garcia overstepped his authority as municipal mayor since the power to appoint the secretary of the municipal council rests on the vice mayor.
“The passage of the 2014 Annual Budget of the Municipality of Dumanjug appears to be passed in a highly irregular procedure coupled with inconsistencies in the records,” said Sanchez in the resolution.
Sanchez said the committee cannot approve the proposed budget ordinance until the case between Garcia and Gica concerning the appointment of the municipal secretary is resolved.
During the same session, the PB also denied Garcia’s motion for reconsideration to reverse the imposition of his 60-day preventive suspension.
The PB also agreed to invite Garcia, Gica, Cabonillas and Aquino to their regular session next week to shed light on the inconsistencies supposedly found in the budget ordinance.