CCMC, DWUP budget hearing suspended

CEBU, Philippines - The deliberation for the proposed 2012 budgets of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and Division for the Welfare and Urban Poor (DWUP) was suspended by the Cebu City Council yesterday because of conflicting figures between those presented by the heads of office and those in the certified budget documents.

“The performance of the department heads in budget hearings reflects deficient leadership of Mike Rama. If department heads, who are his alter-egos, can’t even do good in the budget preparation, how much can we trust them in the actual implementation of these huge projects?” said Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young.

Yesterday, the council scrutinized the figures presented by DWUP head Collin Rosell, who mentioned that his projected collections from the urban poor housing beneficiaries of Cebu City for 2012 would be P60.9 million, which is different from the P49.5 million as certified by the members of the Local Finance Committee.

Because of the conflicting figures, Young believed that it is not the department heads who recommended their budgets but someone else and that they were just made to sign the document.

The councilors asked Budget Officer Nelfa Briones to present the report of Rosell about his collections that were submitted to the Local Finance Committee, but it was also found out that it bears another figure of P50.4 million.

Young said the conflicting figures just proved that the preparation of the 2012 Executive Budget of Cebu City was not properly done by the members of the Local Finance Committee.

He then asked Rosell to explain. But he was irked when the DWUP chief told him, “That’s why you better listen to me.”

The vice mayor then asked Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, head of the committee on budget and finance, to move for the suspension of the proceedings.

He stood up and before he stepped down from his elevated platform, Young told Rosell, “Ayaw ko’g ingon anaa bay ha?”

“Pagsabot mo’g maayo aron magkapareho ang inyong mga figures. Ingon pa mayor nga dugay ra sila nga preparado unya nganong nagkatuali man lagi ning inyong figures nga gipresentar,” Young told the department heads.

Rosell told The FREEMAN that although his projected collections is only an estimate, it is “real figures” based on the average monthly collections of DWUP that is P5,077,473 that will reach to P60.9 million for one year.

“Lahi ang gi-submit nako nga figure kay advance man nga nangayo og figures sa among collections ang Local Finance Committee,” Rosell explained.

The Council also suspended the deliberation of the budget for the CCMC after hospital chief Gloria Duterte presented conflicting figures for revenue sources.

The Council instructed Duterte to coordinate with the LFC members before they appear again on Tuesday.

Allan Bautista, head of the City Resource Management Development Center (CREMDEC), the training facility in barangay Taptap and City Abattoir head Alice Utlang also appeared before the Council.

The legislators said it is not good to grant more budget for the training center because it is not earning much despite it being under the economic-enterprise department.

Utlang said she ask P34 million budget for next year because Rama want to build a new slaughterhouse building and to purchase some new equipment. (FREEMAN)