By Analiza Leyba

THE city of Dagupan retained only five per cent or P18,901,000  net income from its total income of P357,404,000  because of its huge expenses of P338,503,000 last year. 

     This was disclosed by City Budget Officer Ildefonso Calimlim in reaction to the published report of the Commission on Audit on the performance of local government units.

In an interview with the PUNCH before deadline, Calimlim attributed the huge expenses of the city for the year 2005 among others to the expenses incurred by Bangus Festival, chaired by Councilor Michael Fernandez, in its bid to retake its Guinness world record for the longest grill event which was broken by Turkey.

Unfortunately, the effort has not even paid off for the city since the Guinness Corporation based in London has not confirmed the city’s latest feat even after Turkey’s record was later withdrawn. The Guinness website still recognizes the 2003 record of Dagupan City as the record holder.

To date, the city government has not made any accounting of the funds it received from sponsors and monies disbursed for the Bangus Festival since 2003 to 2006.

He said other expenses included interest payments and amortization of the P372.4 million loans the city obtained from the Land Bank of the Philippines for the construction of the Malimgas market and the purchase of a dredging machine supposedly from the United States, and the P10 million amortization paid to the Assets Privatization Trust for the acquisition of Mc Adore.

The COA report listed Dagupan City as having reported the least net income among eight cities in the region, with the biggest expense among cities and the highest total liabilities at P372,420,000.

Calimlim also pointed to the big number of emergency workers and consultants that the city retains. The emergency workers alone eat up P1.7 million from the city coffer monthly, he said.

He said that he recently met with members of the finance committee and they agreed to recommend the cutting down of the number of emergency workers by 50 per cent. But no recommendation was made to cut the number of consultants in the city’s payroll.

At same time, the frequent “Lakbay Aral” (study tour) for barangay captains last year also drained the scarce resources of the city, according to the city budget officer. The “tours” entailed allowances and costs of accommodations for the barangay officials.

       City Auditor Lourdes Villa refused to comment on the report since she was not the city auditor last year.

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