City Attorney says CCMC,Citom not created for profit

THE Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management Office (Citom) cannot be considered as local economic enterprises (LEEs) and public utilities (PUs).

The CCMC and Citom’s income is very limited, said City Attorney Jerone Castillo.

“Citom and CCMC are not established for profit. Hence, they cannot be considered to have financial viability over the long term while delivering quality goods and services to the public,” Castillo said.

The opinion was addressed to City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia who earlier requested for a legal opinion about the subject as part of the preparation for the 2015 annual budget.

Gumia said they needed the legal opinion to determine if the local finance committee would need to appropriate another budget for personnel services of the two offices.

Castillo said that under the Local Government Code, appropriations for salaries, wages, and other allowances for officials and employees of PUs and LEEs shall not be included in the annual budget.

Instead of generating revenue, Castillo said Citom and CCMC were created for the delivery of basic services, specifically efficient traffic management for Citom and appropriate medical and hospital care by CCMC for Cebu City residents.

With this opinion, the local finance committee will have to include in their proposed budget the salaries of workers in Citom and CCMC, apart from the offices’ respective budgets.

The executive department’s local finance committee is still drafting the proposed 2015 annual budget which is expected to be completed by October 15. After which a series of budget deliberations will be conducted together with the Cebu City Council.