ORMOC CITY, Philippines – The installation and utilization of the Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) system for the city government’s telecommunications needs enabled the LGU to save P427,000 from its yearly phone bills.
This was the declaration of Mayor Eric Codilla, saying that the city government had been spending in the past an average of P600,000 for the payment of telephone subscription expenses.
“The use of the PABX system has enabled the city to reduce its telephone subscription from 80 to 24 lines or a significant average decrease of P173,000 in costs per year,” said Codilla.
“The reduction in direct lines did not hamper government transactions because the city was able to increase local telephone lines to 300 connections,” he said.
The mayor said the system “not only improved telecommunications services in City Hall departments and offices, but also resulted in an average annual savings for the city government of P427,000.”
This savings could now be utilized to finance other development projects for the city, said Codilla, adding that his administration has been instituting “fiscal discipline and prudence in spending without sacrificing the delivery of basic services.
Codilla said that, anticipating also the reduction of internal revenue allotment of about P96 million from the original amount of about P500 million due to the creation of new 16 cities, the city enhanced its collection and was able to collect over P305 million in taxes as of late last year. (FREEMAN)