SP to City Hall: Submit documents for 2012 budget
IN response to the call of Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin Lim for a speedy action on the city’s budget, the Sangguniang Panglunsod asked him to look into his office’s efficiency.
The budget proposal submitted by the Dagupan City Hall to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) “lacks basic essential documents”, according to Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chair of the SP.
Fernandez last week reiterated her call to the executive department to submit the necessary supporting papers for the proposed P581 million budget for 2012.
The vice mayor said the council already started deliberation on the budget but it cannot move forward without support documents like the medium term development plan of Dagupan, the revenue collection of the city as of Oct. 31,the expenses in the budget that are obligated and non-obligated, the Gender and Development (GAD) Plan and the City Risk Reduction Plan.
“Before we sit down to review the budget, we want to know our present fiscal position, the amount we had collected so far nd the amount of expenses, obligated an unobligated,” she said.
She said the council has repeatedly written to the executive department provide these to the SP, but city hall has not responded.
“Mahirap bang ibigay ang mga ito?” Fernandez asked.
She cited the time when the 2011 budget was returned to the city government by the Department of Budget and Management due to the absence among others of the GAD Plan, the City Risk Reduction Management Plan and others.
The SP has also been requesting for the presence of department heads to the budget deliberations to answer questions that may be raised by the council members, but Mayor Benjamin Lim has consistently ordered them not to attend the hearings.
City Administrator Vladimir Mata insisted that questions on the budget could simply be answered by the department heads through letters.
“This is funny, there will be endless exchange of letters between the city hall and SP which is only just few meters away,” Fernandez reacted.
The SP chair reiterated her call to Lim to allow the department heads to be present at the deliberations to expedite the approval of the proposed budget.
