Margot questions extra budget of P1 million

A battle over the city’s coffers looms between the mayor’s office and the Cebu City Council, which questioned some items in a proposed P1.147-billion supplemental budget no. 2.

Councilor Margot Osmeña, chairperson of the council’s budget committee, said some items have to be reevaluated such as  a P49.3 million allocation for the Cebu City Medical Center.

She also questioned an  additional P49.47 million for the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom).

Osmeña told Cebu Daily News that Citom already has  P100 million under the P4.5-billion annual budget for 2011 and got  an additional P5-million outlay from the first supplemental budget.

Of the amount, P4.47 million is for maintenance and other operating expenses while P0.5 million is for personnel services.

“What happened to the P100 million that was budgeted for Citom?  How much of that was actually spent?” the councilor said.

She said departments should justify their extra outlays under the supplemental budget.

She said  proposed drainage improvement projects worth P200 million  should be reviewed to see if they are in line  the city’s drainage master plan.

City Budget Officer Nelfa Briones  submitted to the council secretariat last Friday afternoon a copy of the proposed second supplemental budget worth P1.147 billion.

It was  lined up for  discussion in last Wednesday’s session.

The councilor’s husband, Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district, claimed that Mayor Michael Rama has mismanaged the city’s finances as seen  by reports that more City Hall employees are not getting paid on time.

“The city’s finances are so mismanaged that they cannot even pay salaries and then they can spend on Charter days, taxpayers night, travel allowances and more,” the congressman said.

Osmeña also criticized Rama’s plan to open a Letter of Credit with a bank to make funds available for the implementation of projects.

Rama sought the  council’s approval of a P1.2 billion supplemental budget.  This is an additional budget on top of the approved annual budget of P2.5 billion for this year.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said P900 million will be spent for infrastructure projects like the “long delayed” Carbon market unit 2 reconstruction. /Doris C. Bongac and Edison delos Angeles