‘Dramatic’ budget hike questioned

CEBU, Philippines - The first set of  budget proposals from the different offices of the executive department, particularly the projects that showed “dramatic” increases in the budget, was carefully scrutinized yesterday, the first day of the budget hearing for the 2015 annual budget.

Two offices, the Provincial Administrator’s Office and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, were made to explain the obvious increase in the proposed budget for trainings, which showed around 100 percent increase in the allocation as compared to this year.

Provincial Board Member Grecilda Sanchez, chairman of the committee on budget and appropriations, first questioned the P4.5 million increase in the proposed 2015 budget for trainings which has an allocation of P9.5 million. For 2014, trainings and seminars were allotted P5 million. In 2013 though, it was pointed out that the budget allocated was only P166,000.

Sanchez said that it should be explained why the budget for trainings is even bigger than the P2.5-million proposed budget of the Provincial Services Welfare Development Office for the rice subsidy.

But Provincial Administrator, lawyer Mark Tolentino explained to the committee that the seminars and trainings that they have planned for 2015 were not implemented before.

He pointed out that the trainings would not be for his office alone but for all the departments and personnel of the Capitol who would benefit from the trainings, which include management and leadership, problem solving and decision making, effective communication and technical writing.

Tolentino said the trainings were not given the priority these needed and they deem it important that these would be constantly made to achieve the best results, including the International Organization for Standardization accreditation that the Provincial Capitol wants to attain.

On the other hand, Tolentino said they also expect the allocation for trainings and seminars to go down in the next few years since they will be doing all the extensive trainings next year and the following years would just be refresher courses.

PB Sanchez, in an interview with the media, said that Tolentino justified the increase in the budget for trainings.

 “Understandably, in effect, it would improve the services of the whole and entire provincial government,” she said. 

For his part, PDRRMO chief Tribunalo Baltazar Jr. also explained to the committee that the P29-million for 2015 intended for trainings and seminars is needed to make sure that all towns and cities in the province will be trained on disaster preparedness.

Baltazar also pointed out that the trainers they will be getting are experts in the field of DRRM.

Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas also backed Tribunalo in their proposed budget as Rodas explained to the committee that there are trainings for each barangay which would cost around P90,000, and if there are 50 barangays, it would already cost P4.5 million. 

With the trainings, Tribunalo said they are optimistic that they would be able to achieve the zero-casualty aim of their office during disasters.

The PDRRMO proposed budget for 2015 is P121 million, which is P12 million higher than this year’s P109 million.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Administrator’s Office also showed an increase in the budget for the separation pay of employees who are set to retire or those who can avail of early retirement benefits.

The proposed 2015 budget for the separation pay of the employees is P64 million, a large increase from this year’s P1 million.   (FREEMAN)