BAGUIO CITY – The city council Monday unanimously approved the P1.5 billion executive budget of the city government for this year after the conduct of extensive debates relative on how the fund allocations will be executed.
However, the council demanded that all the contracts for the projects funded under the 20 percent local development fund must be brought back to the city council for confirmation.
Moreover, the council also required the concerned departments of the executive branch to submit to the council for scrutiny the detailed solid waste management plan, disaster risk reduction and management plan and the city development plan.
The council expressed disappointment over the failure of the city executive to comply with the conditions it earlier imposed before passing last year’s budget but the councillors are optimistic that this year, the executive branch will comply with their simple conditions on the budget approval.
“Now that it is approved we can move on. We are happy that the budget was already passed since most of our projects this year have been tied up,” Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan stressed.
The approved budget amounting to P1,501,610,000 was approved during the City Council session Monday after the series of budget deliberations in the past weeks.
It will be used to fund the operations of the city government as well as its priority programs and projects laid down this year.
Under the budget is development fund at P180,656,000 and the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund at P67,076,000.
Each department of the city government are also allocated with budget to funds its personal services, MOOE and capital outlay.
The General Services Office has an approved budget of P242,483,000; the Engineer’s Office has P139,010,000; the Health Services Office has P131,818,000; the Treasurer’s Office has P80,860,000; and the Sangguniang Panglungsod has P72,795,000.
Meanwhile, the City Environment and Parks Management Office is funded with P64,730,000; P49,262,000 for the Administrator’s Office; P44,412,000 for the Mayor’s Office; P36,592,000 for the City Social Welfare and Development; P33,526,000 for the City Buildings and Architecture Office; and P28,973,000 for the Veterinarian’s Office.
Furthermore, the Assessor’s Office is allocated with a fund of P20,037,000; the Budget Office at P18,669,000; the Human Resource Management Office at P14,694,000; the Accounting Office at P13,830,000; the Planning and Development Office at P13,664,000; the Legal Office at P12,060,000; the Civil Registry at P7,519,000; and the Library with P6,538,000.
On top of these are the non-office expenditures at P97,872,000 and the support to national agency’s offices at P124,434,000.
After the budget shall have been signed by Domogan, it will be immediately transmitted to the Cordillera office of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM-CAR) for review.
Domogan said he will await the results of the DBM-CAR review on the city’s executive budget before making conclusions in relation to the conditions imposed by the council prior to the approval of the said budget. By Dexter A. See
