THE Cebu Provincial Board (PB) yesterday approved a P230-million supplemental budget.
It include a P20-million outlay for an across-the-board yearend cash incentive of P15,000 for each Capitol employee.
Budget Officer Danilo Rodas said the bonus may be released next week.
“We’ll try our best to have it released by Monday. For sure, it will be before Christmas,” he told reporters yesterday.
It was smooth passage for the sixth supplemental budget with no objections.
The bulk of the budget or P198 million is for a bank loan for the purchase of a fleet of heavy equipment units for repair of roads, drainage systems, seawals and other infrastrcuture for disaster risk reduction.
This “extra” Christmas bonus will be the fifth incentive Capitol workers will receive this year.
They already received a Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) of one-month salary, a Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) bonus, anniversary bonus, and 13th month pay.
A Capitol employee would end up receiving an average of P70,000 in bonuses by December.
The Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) recently announced Conequip as the winning bidder which a P198-million bid price to supply various heavy equipment.
The provincial government intended to borrow P200 million from the Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) but the bank would not release the money if the exact amount of the items will not be determined.
Before the bidding process can start, Rodas said a budget has to be determined first.
“It is a requirement that a budget is on hand before bidding. In this case, the bidding came first for the purpose of establishing the exact amount the bank will release,” said Rodas.
Earlier this year, the Capitol entered into a P200-million loan agreement with the LBP.
The PB, before granting authority to the governor to enter into a contract with Conequip, first has to evaluate all bidding documents through its ad-hoc committee.
The Capitol set aside P100 million in its 2015 budget for debt-servicing, which will be sourced from its Annual Investment Plan.
Based on a study by the LBP, the Capitol has a P2.7-billion credit line with the capacity to allocate P500 million in its annual budget for debt servicing.
One Cebu gubernatorial bet Winston Garcia questioned the provincial government’s need to secure a loan when the province has a lot of assets.
Cebu was recently declared the richest among 80 provinces in the country based on its record of P28.18 billion in equity according to the 2014 annual financial report of the Commission on Audit.
Mosf of its equity is in landholdings of high commercial value located in Cebu City.
In 2014, the province earned P651 million.
It generated revenue of P2.76 billion against its expenditures worth P2.11 billion.