SLIM BUDGET GETS SLASHED

POWER OF THE PURSE. Cebu City legislators gather around Councilor Margot Osmena, head of the budget and finance committee, before the start of yesterday’s last session of the year to pass the 2016 annual budget. There’s Sisinio Andales, Roberto Cabarrubias, Alvin Dizon and Eugenio Gabuya. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Zero outlay for motor vehicles, SRP master plan, asphalting

With its budget severely slashed to P6.4 billion, the Cebu city government will have to operate with many outlays that were  reduced or given “zero” allocations.

In a vote of 9-3, the City Council yesterday approved the annual budget ordinance for 2016 in a special session, the last one for the year.

The Cebu City government will operate with half the size of its current budget of P13.4 billion.

The original   proposal was already a slim version of P8.9 billion  when it was submitted last October by the Rama administration.

It became even  smaller  because the opposition  bloc in the council  won’t  consider spending   P2.7 billion listed as income from a first installment payment expected in August from the sale of the South Road Properties (SRP) lots.

Only “regular sources of funds” will be considered, said Councilor Margot Osmeña in her report as head of the budget and finance committee.

“(This P2.7 billion) will not be counted as one of the sources of funds for the 2016 Annual Budget, the reason being that the case filed by a certain Mr. Romulo Torres against the members of the City Council has yet to be decided with finality by the court,” she said.

Most affected in the reduced annual budget were capital outlays for infrastructure, vehicle purchases and master plans.

“Aid to barangays” also had deep cuts.

Proposals given “zero” budget included  road asphalting (P150 million), and motor vehicles  for offices under the Mayor’s Office, Vice Mayor’s Office and Department of Public Services, including a P100-million request for heavy equipment under the Department of Public Services.

The council also shot down a P50-million request for a master plan for the SRP, traffic, coastal areas, downtown and uplands.

For garbage collection and disposal, only P135 million was approved from the original P238.2 million request.

(The figure is still bigger than the current year’s P51 million, an amount that was exhausted by September despite approval of additional funds for tipping fees and private haulers, leading to  a crisis in uncollected garbage in city streets.)

A budget for construction of roads and other infrastructure in the SRP was sliced to half at P50 million instead of the original P100 million.
(See table of outlays that were reduced to zero or severely cut.)

Acting Mayor Edgardo Labella said he will wait to see a copy on Monday before commenting.

“I can’t discuss without reading. Hopefully by Monday I’ll receive it already and of course I will immediately act on it,” he said.

Many proposals of the administration were deleted and given “zero” allocation.

The budget committee said there were  duplicated programs and “overbudgeted” items or the departments were unable to defend their requests.

For example, capital outlay for the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) was given zero allocation.

What was left was a P300 million additional allocation for the construction of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

According to the budget committee, DEPW still has a balance of P1.8 billion this year in unused funds.

A sum of P100 million was requested for construction of a medium-rise building called Newtown  in Kamagayan for slum resettlement beneficiaries, but this was slashed to zero.

A P30.4 million proposal for the solo parents program was also ignored since the beneficiaries, they said, can qualify only in 2022 after three elections.

Travel and training expenses in all departments and offices were deleted and  instead lumped under the Human Resources and Development Office (HRDO).

Supplies of offices were lumped in the General Services Office (GSO).