Negros Occ PB approves P2.8B budget for 2016

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines— The Negros Occidental Provincial Board unanimously approved the proposed P2.884 billion budget for 2016 during its regular session, Wednesday.

PB Member Salvador Escalante Jr., chairman of committee on finance, budget and appropriations, said the annual budget is usually approved during the second week of December but this time, this is “probably the fastest annual budget approved” in the province.

Of the P2,884,929 budget, P1,023,739,978 will be allocated to the Hospital Operations Department while the General Fund and the Economic Enterprise will get P1,794,882,820 and P66,306,202, respectively.

Under the General Fund, P587, 765,711 will be allocated to Personal Services, P426,735,298 for the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses, and P1,654,436,991 for the Special Appropriations.

The Office of the Governor’s Office has the highest allocation with P127,308,976 followed by the Provincial Engineer’s Office with P113,677,160; Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (P80,689,509); PB (P62,361,989); Provincial Health Office (P56,759,985); Provincial Veterinarian’s Office (P53,363,545); General Services Office (P38,880,360); Provincial Environment and Management Office (P35,735,867); Provincial Assessor’s Office (P33,313,464); and the Negros First Provincial Blood Center (P31,276,875).

The 2016 budget will be sourced out from the province’s Internal Revenue Allotment of P2.57 billion; local income of the General Fund (P93.938 million); income from the 11 provincial government-run hospitals (P171.4 million); and income of the Economic Enterprise Development Division (P44.59 million).

Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said: The approval of the budget “is in keeping with our commitment to fiscal efficiency in governance, as well as principled collaboration in public service. —Marchel P. Espina (FREEMAN)