Sports center eyed anew as source of income

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government is eyeing the Cebu City Sports Center, which is a self-sustaining and self-liquidating facility, to be one of its economic enterprises.

Dominic Diño, Assistant City Administrator for Economic Enterprise, said that while it is supposedly owned by the city government, City Hall does not exactly have control over the operations of the facility.

Diño said the facility’s transactions – from collection and disbursements – do not undergo review by the accounting office. The center also does not remit income to the City Treasurer’s Office.

Only the City Sports Center Management Committee, created in 1995 to serve as a policy-making body of the sports center, approves and determines the disbursements. This, Diño said, might be violating some rules.

CCSC Manager Ricky Ballesteros said the management committee convenes regularly every month. The committee is being headed former Department of Education Regional Director Dr. Iladio Dioko and is composed of himself, DepEd-7 Director Recaredo Borgonia, Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud, Nestor Alonso and Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young.

He said the facility has always been self-sustaining and self-liquidating since he took over in 2002. It has its own bank account, which is a government accredited bank as advised by the Commission on Audit.

He said the arrangement was intently made like that so they can use the funds immediately for the maintenance and operations of the sports center. The sports center does not receive annual subsidy from the city government. 

Ballesteros said that if everything will go through the usual process at City Hall, there is a tendency for maintenance and procurement of supplies to experience delay. He said the bureaucracy practiced by local government units might affect the maintenance and operations of the facility, which is used heavily everyday.

The sports center houses the oval, sports courts and sports clinics like the dance sport. It also houses offices of the Sinulog Foundation Inc., Philippine Sports Commission, Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) and Cebu Youth Center.

The facility earns about P1 million a month but the expenses for the salary of staffs and maintenance is also close to P1 million.

In 2009, the facility earned some P12,723,253 but its expenditures totaled to P12,837,046.42, giving it a deficit of over P113,000. In 2010, the sports center had gross receipts totaling P14,708,392 while the total expenditures amounted to P13,852,358.40. It only had a net income of P856, 033.71.

Averagely, every year, the center spends P6 million for administrative expenses, P2 million for maintenance of the swimming pool and P2 million for maintenance of the oval.

The center gets income from the everyday collection of entrance fees and payment from the rental of space like the canteen and other offices. Some offices only pay for the electricity because they are allowed to use their spaces for free.

“Most of the time, alkansi gyud ta. So I am not sure if it is feasible to be an economic enterprise,” Ballesteros said.

Ballesteros said there has been a similar proposal in the past to make the center a source of income for the city, but it was found out that the facility is not really earning and that the collection and expenditures were break even.

Ballesteros said that if the city absorbs the facility, expenditures might increase because City Hall pays more for the salaries of the staff.

Diño said a feasibility study will be conducted, as required by the Local Government Code, before decisions are made. – (FREEMAN)