DAGUPAN’s P581 million budget for 2012 failed anew to get the stamp of approval of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for lack of required documents.

Atty. Janet Abuel, DBM regional director, sent a letter dated May 15, 2012 to the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod chaired by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, through Mayor Benjamin Lim, saying they found the budget submission lacking in basic documents as prescribed by law.

The DBM said it was returning the annual budget without prejudice to its resubmission because it failed to include the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) approved by the Sanggunian, including the Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Plan and Gender and Development (GAD) plan.

Should the city fail to submit the required documents, the city budget could end up being inoperative in the absence of funds or the city would have to revert to a re-enacted budget based on last year’s amount.

Fernandez said the LDIP is a three-year infrastructure plan of the city government approved by the City Development Council (CDC) from which the AIP must be based. The AIP is only a one-year development plan also approved by CDC.

Councilor Jeslito Seen, SP chairman on finance, speculated that the city will likely revert to a reenacted budget since the office of the city mayor has consistently refused to submit the plans to the sanggunian.

Fernandez, speaking during the Media in Action Forum of the Pangasinan Press Club on Wednesday, said while the AIP plan was submitted by the executive to the SP, it cannot be approved in the absence of a Local Development Investment Plan (LIDP).

Prior to submission to the DBM, the vice mayor already pointed this out to city hall but to no avail.

Councilor Seen corroborated Fernandez’ statement saying that under Section 3.1.3 of the Budget Operations Manual for Local Government Units (LGUs), the LDIP must first be submitted before the council can approve the AIP.

City Administrator Vladimir Mata and the executive department, however, never bothered to submit the documents.

Fernandez recalled that this was the same problem that arose last year when the 2011 budget was also returned by DBM.

Mata insisted that the he had submitted all the documents sought by DBM, but Fernandez clarified that the LDIP and the GAD were not among the documents appended to the thick book submitted when the SP was winding up its budget hearing last March.

Seen added that Dagupan’s continued violation may seriously affect the city plan to regain its status as a first class city from a second class city. He hinted that the city may even be demoted to third class for its continued violations.

DISCREPANCY

Fernandez surmised that the city mayor’s office has deliberately intended not to submit the LDIP because the AIP provided for a more than P700 million budget whereas the approved budget of the city for 2012 was only P581 million.

By consistently failing to present the LDIP to the SP, the executive appears to be “hiding something” from the council, she added.

In reaction, PUNCH columnist Gonzalo T. Duque, president of the Pangasinan Press Club, was prompted to ask: “So where will city hall get the difference of more than P100 million to bankroll the AIP?”

Seen, in a separate interview, said that Mata clearly ignored Ordinance No. 1975-2012 or the city budget itself, Section V of which states: “The details and expenditures of the 5% Budgetary Reserve (calamity fund) is not authorized due to the absence of a Calamity Plan (page 142, proposed 2012 AIP) contrary to Sec. 12 (c7) of Republic Act 10121.”

Also, Section VI of the same budget states: “ details and breakdown of expenditures  of the 20% development fund is not authorized due to the absence of the Comprehensive Development Plan and Local Development and Investment Plan contrary to DILG-NEDA-DBM-DOF Joint Memorandum Circular No. 1,S-2007, dated March 8, 2007.”

At the same time, the GAD plan is always an integral part in any budget as provided by law, he pointed out.

Fernandez told Mata during the forum”Kung hawak mo ang LDIP, kung hawak mo ang LRRDMC plan and Gad Plan, you submit them to the SP so that I can ask the councilors to act on all these right away.”

Back to Homepage

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments