Rama to CH managers: Defend the budget
CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama is marshaling his department managers to defend the proposed P18.9 billion budget for 2015.
He said defending the budget before the Cebu City Council is “crucial.”
Councilor Margot Osmeña, who heads the council’s budget and finance committee, said the marathon budget hearings will be announced during the council’s regular session today.
The mayor said the next two years will be crucial for the city. “In 2015, it’s APEC and in 2016 it’s the Eucharistic Congress. Therefore, we need serious, continuous performance of each and every department,” Rama told reporters yesterday.
Rama proposed an P18.9 billion budget to the City Council last month. This is the biggest ever proposed budget for the city.
Close to half of the proposed budget will be sourced from selling government-owned lots including around P9 billion from the lots in the South Road Properties (SRP).
“I’m seeing people in the local finance that are under my appointment, and they are department heads, they’re not doing their job. As soon as the budget will be approved, we see the outcome of the deliberation and what will be the final amount. Then we go forward. And I cannot be going forward with the budget if I’m seeing a department that cannot even defend its budget,” Rama said.
“It’s incongruous that only I will master it and my colleagues won’t attempt to internalize it. I would like to have a team that we are one in our thinking, united in our direction and solid in our resolve,” he added.
Rama said he’s also looking towards 2016 which will be the end of his second term as mayor.
He said he wants all the things he planned to be accomplished by then.
Defend or else
The mayor also hinted of a possible revamp among the department heads come January next year if he sees that they weren’t able to defend their respective proposed budgets well.
“This will also be a challenge. I am depending on how the department heads will perform on defending their budget and also make the projects actualized. They will have to be answering to me in the months to come. Then movement will occur by January,” Rama added.
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