Capitol employes to get love bonus

Capitol employees have something to be happy about these days. The much-awaited P3,000 love bonus is included in the approved first supplemental budget of the province.

However, not everything looks rosy. The Provincial Board approved the other day only about half of the proposed amount.

From P139,880,869.87, the board approved only P72,802,869.87, which was less than 50 percent.

The approval was done after more than an hour discussion on the proposed amendments to the report submitted by the committee on budget and appropriations, which is chaired by Board Member Gabriel Luis Quisumbing.

Most prevalent amendments were made following Board Member Victor Maambong's proposal to conditionally approve two items under the Provincial General Services Office: the P3 million appropriation for the janitorial services and P3.3 million for the security services, which were both reduced to P1,000.

Such slashing of certain amount, according to Board Member Juan Bolo, seemed like a mockery of the one who proposed the budget. "Should you want to scrap it, why not scrap it all the way, and not leave P1,000 out of the three million," Bolo said.

But Quisumbing reasoned out that the procedure even allowed them to reduce a certain item to P1.

He said there is a pending investigation before the Ombudsman into the questionable contracts covering the security and janitorial services.

"The contract and the contract price is highly questionable, that is why we decided to exclude them," Quisumbing said.

According to the Comment of the Committee, the supplemental appropriations for janitorial services and security services were improper since they were not authorized by the board.

Thus Maambong proposed that the appropriation for the said items be approved pending the result of the investigation.

Maambong's proposal was eventually put to vote with eight of the members have opted against reinstating the appropriations of the two items, while only Maambong and Board Members Alfie Ouano and Juan Bolo voted in their favor.

Provincial Sangguniang Kabataan Federation Ramon Martin Calderon decided to abstain.

Those who voted against the move were Quisumbing, Board Members Estrella Yapha, Agnes Magpale, Carmiano Kintanar, Jose Mari Gastardo, Rose Durano, Victoria Corominas, and Joven Mondigo.

The committee members termed as undesirable items the proposed appropriations that were not properly justified by department heads.

Some of these items were from the Provincial Engineer's Office whose proposed P30 million budget for road and bridge repair was reduced to P1,000 and the computerization program of the Provincial Planning and Development Office which was reduced to P1,000 from P20 million.