Still no revised budget for City Council

THE Local Finance Committee (LFC) of the Cebu City government was unable to submit the revised P10.8 billion budget for next year in time for today’s resumption of the budget hearings of the City Council.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said the local finance committee were still trying to finalize the second version of the executive budget.

“The mayor was unable to sign the documents since he is in Manila,” he said.

The committee together with officials of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) will make their presentation in this afternoon’s hearing.

Poblete told the council last Tuesday that the executive department needed more time to prepare for their presentation on the city’s economic enterprises, which is projected to produce P4 billion in the mayor’s budget.

The city administrator told the council that the LFC would have to revise the statement of receipts which identified the source of funding for the executive budget.

He said revenues projected from economic enterprises will have to be reduced to P2 billion.

He said the local finance committee found errors and double entries especially in subsidies taken from the general fund property and released to the city’s special accounts which increased the draft budget to P11.8 billion.

But in a text message yesterday, Poblete said what he is submitting “is not a revised budget but a revised statement of receipts or commonly termed as funding source.”

Councilor Margot Osmena, the council’s budget committee chairperson, said Poblete’s declarations before the council is contradicting his media pronouncements.

Budget Officer Nelfa Briones said she will have to ask Acting CityTreasurer Tessie Camarillo for the budget breakdown which she promised to present to the council in today’s budget hearing.

Legislators raised a concern last Tuesday about the proposed P2 billion credit line, saying it should not to exceed 20 percent of the year’s budget.

Councilor Jose Daluz III said the city still has about P589 million in ammortization for the South Road Properties which it pays every year.

If the 20 percent cap is to be followed, the city’s amortization should not exceed P629 million next year, he said. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac