BACOLOD City – The City Engineering Office (CEO) and Management Information Technology and Computer Services (MITCS) office may face possible budget cuts next year if they fail to defend a low-utilization of their funds this 2018.
This was disclosed by Councilor Caesar Distrito, chairman of the committee on finance and appropriations, to the media on Nov. 6.
He described the two offices as having a “low performance” in terms of utilizing their respective allocations.
Distrito said that for about two years already the MITCS has yet to implement City Ordinance (CO) No. 09-16-788, an ordinance providing accessible and secure wireless internet connections in designated public places in this city and in certain offices of the local government.
He added an amount of P3 million has already been allocated for the MITCS office to implement such ordinance but until now the fund has not been utilized.
The same goes for the CEO, as they have an allocated development fund that has gone largely unutilized, Distrito said.
He said during the budget hearings, which are scheduled on Nov. 15, 19 and 20, these offices must defend and justify why they were not able to fully utilize their annual budget.
The councilor also said that all offices must not fall lower than 50 percent when it comes to utilizing their annual budget, or else they may face similar cuts.
The proposed annual budget for 2019 in this city is P2.52 billion – an increase of P270 million from this year’s budget.
Distrito hopes that the city council will approve on the third and final reading this December the proposed allocation.
Distrito said that the biggest chunk of the fund – around 52.92 percent (P1.33 billion) – has been set aside for the maintenance and other operating expenses of the city; 26.21 percent (P660 million) is for personnel services; 7.29 percent (P252 million) is for the city development fund; 3.24 percent (P81.7 million) is for equipment expenses; 0.32 percent (P 7.9 million) for the financial expenses; and 10.02 percent (P184 million) for other miscellaneous purposes.
As to the sources of funds, Distrito pointed out that 50 percent of the budget comes from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) amounting to P 1.26 billion and the other half is from local tax collections and other sources at P 1.258 billion./PN
