2011 Dagupan budget expected in 2 weeks
DAGUPAN City’s budget for this year is expected to be finalized within two weeks.
This was the assurance issued by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chair of the Sangguniang Panglungsod, after 13 department heads have completed their presentation of their respective budgets before an en banc committee of the SP.
Another 10 departments are scheduled for hearings this week.
“So far, we have been able to get the information that we need (from department heads) although we have yet to review the final document to be submitted by the LFC (local finance committee) with individual copies to all council members for their individual review and evaluation,” Fernandez said.
Once the hearings are completed, Fernandez said the council will finalize the data gathered and prepare an ordinance enacting the 2011 budget.
Fernandez clarified that the hearings are important because these help the council in understanding and evaluating the planned activities and the corresponding funding required by each department.
OVERPRICED GOODS
“How can you come up with the correct budget and how would you know if the department head is performing his or her duty correctly if you will not ask questions,” she said.
Citing the operation of the City Nutrition Office that reported a 120-day feeding program for 567 malnourished children, the council discovered that the city hall has purchased goods for the program that were overpriced based on bulk purchase prices from Jurick General Merchandise as compared to prevailing market prices last December 2.
Councilor Luis Samson Jr. said if the food items were bought at correct prices, the city can actually double the number of the feeding program’s beneficiaries.
The council determined that 12 boxes of Lucky Me noodles purchased with a unit cost of P1,097 was only P449 per unit cost in the retail market. A chocolate drink purchased at P3,805 per unit cost but the suggested retail price was only P1,662 per unit cost. Four cases of evaporated milk with unit cost of P2,558 or a total of P10,232 could have only cost P102.90 per unit cost.
The procurements were allegedly made by an executive assistant in the mayor’s office who oversees the feeding program.
“Yon ang gusto naming mangyari sa budget na hindi lang natin natutulungan ang mga malnourished children and senior citizens but all others. In other words the money of the city must be maximized,” Samson said.
DREDGING MACHINE
During the hearings, the SP also obtained information from General Service Office chief Ed Magno that the old dredging machine of the city and 16 other unserviceable equipment and vehicles were sold by the city as scrap iron for only more than P900,000 although it could have fetched more than P3 million if it was sold at the then prevailing price of scrap iron at P15 per kilo.
The dredging machine was bought by the city in December 1995 during the first term of then Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr.
Melchor Guiang, a mechanical engineer at the City Engineering Office, said the machine was already beyond repair and had to be disposed.
The SP, however, was unaware that the dredging machine had been sold as scrap and that a new one is under repair.
In both the purchasing of goods for the feeding and the sale of the old dredging machine and other scrap metal, the council has yet to determine if city hall complied with bidding rules as required by law.
The Waste Management Division was also questioned for asking a P3 million gas allowance this year when it incurred only P1.3 million for its six months operations last year and another P1.3 million for the first quarter even if it has only one dump truck running.
“So these are some of things that they need to convince us to approve their proposed budget,” Fernandez said.–LM
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