Dagupan started 2013 with P34M deficit, say
WONDER no more why the Dagupan City government is broke.
City Budget Officer Luz de Guzman has revealed that right at the start of the year, the city government under former mayor Benjamin Lim already had a beginning deficit of P34 million.
The financial shortfall was “cured” by utilizing part of the P119 million proceeds from the controversial sale of MC Adore without an approved supplemental budget from the Sangguniang Panlungsod, therefore, deemed illegal.
However, the city’s financial standing again turned negative beginning May, two months before newly-elected Mayor Belen Fernandez assumed office in July after winning over Lim in the May 13 poll.
Efforts to contain the city’s financial hemorrhage were not enough as the city still suffered from an P8 million deficit and, the Fernandez administration found itself rummaging for a P28 million fund to pay for electricity expenses from September to November plus P7.8 million for the wages of job order employees and consultants from November to December.
De Guzman blamed the city’s precarious financial situation to the “defective” budgets for the past three years under Lim.
The budget officer cited the irregular practice of using new appropriations to pay for the prior year’s obligations, which means the budget for 2011 was used to pay for 2010 expenses, the budget for 2012 used to pay for the 2011 expenses, and so forth.
She also pointed to the “imagined” budget surpluses declared to cover up the deficits.
The city declared a P1.5 surplus in 2010 although it had unsettled electric bills for two months worth P7 million; In 2011, there was supposed to be a surplus of P3.4 million despite P10 million in electric bills; and in 2012, a P1 million surplus with P17 million in electricity dues.
She also noted that in 2011 to 2013, the annual budgets submitted lacked the requirements of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) resulting in the latter returning the submitted budgets without any endorsement.
The missing requirements were the Comprehensive Development Investment Plan, Local Development Investment Plan, Annual Investment Plan, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan, and Gender and Development (GAD) Plan.
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