No festival earnings remitted for 3 years
GONE WITH THE WIND?
WHERE have all the huge earnings derived from the trade fairs, food bazaars, sponsorships, flea markets or baratillos in the city streets held under the past city administration in the last three years gone?
Definitely not in the city’s coffer, as testified by an official from the city hall accounting office.
Translacion Abalos, assistant chief of the accounting office, bared during a committee hearing in the Sangguniang Panglunsod last week that records of the City Accounting Office show no revenues from any baratillo or other activities was logged into the books of the city during the previous term of former mayor Benjamin Lim from 2010-2013.
The revelation was made during the hearing on draft Ordinance No. 0498 authored by Councilor Jeslito Seen, chairman of the committee on finance, seeking to institutionalize and regulate the conduct of baratillos and other revenue earning activities held in the streets of Dagupan during Christmas festivities, the Bangus Festival and other officials events.
Mayor Belen Fernandez earlier proposed to her allies that an ordinance be passed to make the baratillos a permanent source of fund for the city, which City Treasurer Romelita Alcantara estimates to net a minimum of P4 million.
The other councilors present during the hearing were Marvin Fabia and Redford Erfe-Mejia, who acknowledged that he was the chair of the executive committee of the last Dagupan City Fiesta.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES
Erfe-Mejia, as fiesta chairman, denied any knowledge about how the revenues earned were handled and said it was usually then Mayor Benjamin Lim who negotiated with the concessionaires and exhibitors for the baratillos.
However, Aguedo Sta. Maria, city market superintendent, told the The PUNCH that neither was his office involved in the collection of rentals from the baratillos and pointed to the executive committees designated by the mayor for the fiesta events that handled it.
Sta. Maria confirmed that during the past city administration, stalls during city fiestas and the Bangus Festival were rented out at P30,000 to P 50,000 each for the duration of the event but maintained he was not aware how the revenues were handled.
Seen later told mediamen that based on records of the City Accounting Office, executive committees were even given a minimum of P3 million as financial assistance for the holding of the fiestas such as the Bangus Festivals, but no revenues from the baratillos and other activities were remitted.
Also present at the hearing was former Councilor Liberato Reyna Jr., president of the Dagupan City People’s Council and designated as Hermano Mayor of the 2013 Dagupan City Fiesta.
Draft Ordinance No. 0-498 provides, among other things, that “payments received by the City government from trade fairs, food bazaars, flea markets or baratillos should accrue directly to the City Government’s coffer and must be declared as public funds” in line with fiscal transparency and accountability.
ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL
Reyna, meanwhile, submitted to the committee a separate proposed ordinance, citing that Seen’s draft “does not provide funding for the very event from which it derives revenues”, likening the situation to “killing the goose that lays the golden egg”.
Reyna has suggested that 50 per cent of the revenues derived from the operation of trade fairs, baratilos and tiangges, food bazaars and the like be allocated outright to the Fiesta or Official City Event and the other 50 percent to the city coffer.
He said his proposal directs that the allocated fiesta fund shall be used purposely for the conduct and operation of the fiesta or official event; that official receipts be issued for monies received and that funds received are subject to liquidation, and to the usual accounting and auditing rules and procedures.
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
