“The city deserves a well-planned budget”
By Dagupan City Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez
OUR people have seen for themselves how we have acted and performed our mandate and responsibility in reviewing the budget the past weeks.
We did our part to attempt to pass the budget as fast as possible but regrettably the city hall is making the process longer and difficult by submitting erroneous figures each time. We kept going back to square one studying a revised draft. Last week was the third draft and it still contained erroneous data.
In last week’s budget hearing, we were again dismayed to see that the city hall’s finance committee tasked to prepare the draft budget failed again to present what was asked of them previously. We were not given individual copies of the third draft even during the hearing.
Sana binigyan na kami ng advanced copy, certified correct and signed by the members of the local committee but they didn’t. Anyway, we were again assured we will be given a copy na wala ng errors with complete supporting documents. So, hopefully the next hearing will proceed smoothly.
Once the mayor’s office finally submits the complete and error-free draft for the council’s consideration, our people can expect speedy action from the council.
Our people expect us to be professional and thorough in our work but we can only do that by expecting the same output from the mayor’s office. Pag mali yong groundwork, mali ang maging desisyon na lalabas.
We have stressed to the finance committee led by city administrator that they must submit the full details of their projected expenditures for the council’s full appreciation because that is our only basis in approving the budget.
When I asked the administrator on what was their basis in preparing their budget per department, we were told that department budgets were prepared on simply a projected 10per cent increase . Hindi po puwede yon. Kasi dapat pinagaaralang mabuti kung ano ang serbisyo na dapat ibigay sa tao hindi lang sa kwentahan ng 10% increase across the board lang. kaya kailangan namin ang actual expenses na gaya ng sinabi ng Department of Budget and Management.
Nahihirapan na kami sa palaging pabago-bagong numbers na ibinibigay sa amin na walang explanation. If only the city hall’s committee would do what is expected of them, acting on the budget would not take longer than 15 days.
I am sure our people would not want us to approve a haphazardly prepared budget because that would affect the quality of the services that our people expect from their government.
I assure our people na tuloy-tuloy and masusing pag-aaral namin sa budget. Gagawin naming ang lahat para sa ikabubuti ng kabuyan ng mga Dagupeno.
So once the mayor’s office submits an error-free budget complete with supporting documents, our people can expect the city council to hold marathon hearings on the budget.
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