Treasurer says unspent calamity fund cannot be used for hospital rehab

CEBU, Philippines - Acting City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas has declared that the unexpended calamity fund last year amounting to P85 million could not be spent for the repair or reconstruction of Cebu City Medical Center.

Cuevas issued the clarification in response to the call of the City Council for the immediate transfer of said available funds to be used in the rehabilitation of quake-damaged hospital.

“Dili na magamit ang kwarta kay para man na sa preparedness. I don’t know if ma-qualify ang repair or reconstruction sa preparedness. Besides, CCMC has a budget for renovation for 2014,” Cuevas said.

Councilor Margarita Osmena, chairman of the council’s committee on budget and finance, earlier said in a privilege speech that the city, based on a report by OIC City Accountant Josefina Gonzales, has an unexpended calamity fund amounting to P103 million.

Cuevas said the amount for transfer from to the trust fund is a smaller P85 million and promised to transfer it before the year ends.

She said that the identified fund source is not a “clean” one since the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council has already lined up program and projects related to disaster preparedness.

“We can use the money if they reprogram it. They can convene and pass a resolution and have it approved by the council,” Cuevas said.

CCDRRMO operations head, Alvin Santillana, said the unexpended balance is intended for payables and programs whose list has already been submitted and approved.

Santillana said that the amount Osmeña was referring to is no longer the same since there are already appropriations for the payables and on-going programs of the CCDRRMC.

Meanwhile, the City Council has threatened to sue the CCDRRMC if it cannot provide a comprehensive breakdown on how the calamity funds were spent in previous years.

In 2012, LDRRMC has an appropriation of P157,422,821 lower than this year’s P202,115,029.

“We have to be transparent and accountable for the people because it’s their money,” Councilor Gerardo Carillo said.

Santillana, a former staff of Carillo, did not take the threat seriously saying, “mura raman to’g pasumbingay.”

The council also reminded Santillana not to initiate re-programming of funds far from ideal operations without any resolution submitted to them.

Carillo cited the funding of 30 closed circuit television (CCTv) cameras for the Police Coordination and Advisory Council (PCAC) from the calamity fund worth P30 million which still not yet paid in full amount for this year.

Osmeña on the other hand also asked Santillana to submit the list of all casual employees yet to receive their pending salaries for the previous months.

“You (Santillana) need to submit(list of casual employees) para mabayaran ni sila (casual employees), please make it right because these JO(job orders) need to be paid as soon as possible for them to pay their daily expenses and they have been serving the city government to that effect,” Osmeña said.

Other councilors agreed saying the salaries of the casual employees should not be delayed considering that they are not covered by any insurances with the kind of work they have at LDRRMC.

Santillana has promised to provide all the documents asked by the council. — (FREEMAN)