City Hall can fund Charter Day bonus

Employees of the Cebu City government may get as much as P10,000 as Charter Day bonus if the city council gives the green light to Mayor Michael Rama’s recommendation.

City Accountant Diwa Cuevas said there are more than enough funds to pay the bonuses of close to 4, 800 regular and casual employees.

She said the release of a bigger amount “is not generosity because its election season. The mayor promised that. Dili pwede nga mag sige lang ta ug istorya unya dili tumanon. Madamay man sad ang council ana kay mo ingon na sad siya nga dili mosugot ang council,” Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., the City Council’s majority floorleader, said.

Pe was also banking on the assurance of Rama’s ally, Councilor Jose Daluz III, who told the City Council in yesterday morning’s budget hearing that the city government could spend the 2012 surplus funds on bonuses.

“ Councilor Daluz said we can use 2013 income to pay prior years obligations. But whether or not they can raise the needed amount is their problem,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Councilors agreed to ask Rama and the Local Finance Committee (LFC) to resubmit an amended supplemental budget that will reflect the bonus increase as well as an amended certification on where the funds will be sourced.

Rama laughed when sought for comment on the outcome of the budget hearing.

“Why should I be the one to submit when they are the ones who changed it?” he said.

Rama said he will have to consult the LFC on the council’s proposal to make sure City Hall does not exceed the Personal Service limitation.

“Lets see. We can’t do this hastily. We have to be careful at the same time,” he said.

He said that he was inclined to give out Charter Day bonuses. The P10,000 balance from the additional Christmas bonus may be given when he gets re-elected.

Rama submitted to the City Council on Wednesday his draft Supplemental Budget 1 amounting to a total of P36.7 million. Of the amount, P31.3 million will be spent on cash incentives while another P5.4 million will be spent on city sponsored activities, the charges of which come from prior years.

City-sponsored activities refer to the honorarium of personnel from the Department of Public Services (DPS) who worked during the Sinulog 2012 and 2013 and Citom personnel who manned traffic during the two events, City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said.

The 1,201 cleaners and enforcers who rendered service in 2012 and the 1,497 personnel who worked in the 2013 Sinulog will each get an honorarium of P2,000 per service rendered.

SB1 will be funded from 2012 surplus funds of P26.4 million and prior years adjustments and other deferred credits amounting to P10.3 million. Income from deferred credit come from advance payments made by Bigfoot for their lease of a portion of the South Road Properties (SRP).

Diwa said since they already closed the 2012 book of accounts earlier than usual, they were already able to identify surplus funds of about P140.58 million from the general funds – P47.2 million, Local Development Funds (LDF) – P58.5 million, hospitals – P20 million, markets – P12 million, Cremdec – P1.48 million and housing – P1.4 million.

Pe asked Cuevas where the surplus funds would come from when the city government still has prior year’s obligations which have not been paid.

Diwa replied that the surplus funds where actual funds in bank and vault but she clarified that having earned surplus funds does not necessarily mean that the city is already free of any payables.

Councilor Daluz said that as a policy, payables from prior years may still be paid from the income of the current year, thus there is no need for the council to fear payables that are yet to come.