BTF to VM Lim: I will not shame Dagupan
MAYOR Belen T. Fernandez rebuffed Vice Mayor Brian Lim for suggesting during his interview by GMA7 that the city government does not have to prioritize the payment of overdue electric bills.
“We have to pay our electric bills, otherwise we will suffer the embarrassment of having our electricity disconnected, the only LGU (local government unit) perhaps in the whole country that will experience this,” said Fernandez who has been dealing with a financially-troubled city government she took over from Lim’s father, former Mayor Benjamin Lim.
“Hindi ko gagawin ang ginawa ng kanyang tatay. Dahil sa kanyang ginawa, nagkaloko-loko ang pondo ng siyudad,” came Fernandez’s reaction.
The Dagupan Electric Corporation (Decorp) already sent a notice of disconnection to the city for its failure to pay its electric bills from July to September in the amount of P11.1 million.
Fernandez cited how his predecessor mismanaged the city’s funds and electric bills since 2012 that eventually left the city suffering from a huge budget deficit as early January 2013.
Under the Lim administration, only the electric bill for the month of January was paid.
When Fernandez became acting mayor on May 16, her administration paid the electric bills for March to June.
She said the serving of the disconnection notice could have been avoided had the Sangguniang Panlungsod, with the young Lim as presiding officer, not deferred the approval of Supplemental Budget.
The supplemental budget that was finally approved last Friday in a special session after 10 days delay, included the P15.9 million intended to pay for electric bills from July to August at P7.8 million and another P6.1 million for wages of emergency workers and consultants from September to October.
City Budget Officer Luz de Guzman told newsmen that the other reason why city could not pay its electric bills is because the Lim administraiton only alloted P31 million in the 2013 annual city budget for the city’s electricity expense, and yet the city already spent P42 million in 2012.
CONSISTENTLY BROKE
De Guzman said that based on the analysis of the past finances of the city under the Lim administration, the Dagupan city government has been incurring deficits monthly since the start of 2013.
De Guzman said the biggest deficit was incurred in January at P37.1 million when P17 million in electric expenses and over P20 million in gasoline expenses, overtime pay spent in 2012 were charged to the 2013 budget.
This practice of passing previous accounts to the current budget was going on under the Lim administration since 2011 but was hidden from the public that enabled the city hall to declare an annual surplus at each end of every year.
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