FILE PHOTO: Then Bacolod mayoral aspirant Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez | Photo courtesy of Albee Benitez’s Facebook page
BACOLOD CITY — Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez of this city on Thursday, September 15, announced that the number of job order (JO) workers here will be reduced by more than half to address the P302 million cut in the city’s National Tax Allotment (NTA) for 2023.
The Department of Budget and Finance (DBM) has announced a 14.47 percent cut in the NTA shares of all local government units in 2023. That means Bacolod’s share of P2 billion this year will drop to P1.7 billion in 2023, or a cut of P302.6 million, the DBM said.
Benitez said they are compensating the budget cut by reducing the number of JO workers of the city to 2,700 in 2023, or by more than 50 percent.
This will enable the city government to reduce the number of job order salaries to P300 million in 2023, from the P625 million allotted by the previous administration.
“We are now trying to analyze and we are reviewing how many job order workers are needed by the city. Based on our review, we looked at the different departments and divisions, we don’t need that much,” Benitez said.
He said the budget for Bacolod City in 2023 will be P3.250 billion, which is the same as what was allotted in 2022.
“This is because Bacolod’s local revenues are increasing,” he said.
Benitez said P1.1 billion in local revenues was projected for 2022 and more than 80 percent was already achieved last month.
“We are looking at a slight improvement in local revenues and maybe even more for next year,“ he said.
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