City staves off budget for info center equipment

The city council deferred the approval of the proposed P2.2-million budget intended to upgrade office equipment of City Hall's Management Information Computer Services.

The P2.2-million allocation was supposedly part of the P3.9-million overall budget for the purchase of equipment for eight offices and departments of the City Hall, including Mics.



However, Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa questioned the P2.2-million allocation for Mics when the proposed measure covering it was presented to the city council during its regular session yesterday.

Abellanosa pointed out he did not notice if the items enlisted in the proposal were included in the annual budget plan that Mics presented to the city council during last year's budget hearing for this year's annual budget.

In answer to Abellanosa's query, councilor Jocelyn Pesquera of the council's committee on budget and finance said she was not able to review such proposed budget.

Included in yesterday's agenda of the city council was a letter coming from Mayor Tomas Osmeña, requesting the local legislative body to pass a resolution charging P3.9 million against office of the mayor-capital outlay account no. 1011-8-300-200 for the procurement of new equipment for different City Hall offices and departments.

In view of Abellanosa's question, the city council adopted a corollary motion instead which in effect approved the budget proposal, except the allocation for Mics.

Hence, only the P1.8-million budget for the purchase of different sets of furniture and equipment for the mayor's office, General Services Office, accounting office, treasurer's office, Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries, Department of Engineering and Public Works, and civil registrar's office was appropriated by the city council.

What was put on hold was the P2.2-million budget for the purchase of one set of base station trimble 5700 GPS receiver and one set of rover station trimble 5800 GPS receiver RTK/PP with complete accessories.

Mics, which is City Hall's Geographic Information System center, is in need of these two sets of equipment for a more efficient output in its survey operations on mapping of lots purchased for the city's socialized housing program, inventory of streetlights and infrastructure projects.

Early on, councilor Jose Daluz III said these advanced sets of equipment are perceived to greatly aid the city's GIS center in the planned subdivision of the 23 parcels of city-owned lots that will be utilized for its socialized housing project as well as in the survey of streetlights and posts jointly undertaken by the city government and the Visayan Electric Company.

Daluz added that the survey-grade GPS equipment the city wants to purchase can meet the accuracy requirement for surveys, hence it would help in the accurate plotting of the properties of the city government.

In the past, it was reported that around 23,000 tax declarations of the city government could no longer be traced so that there is a need to conduct another tax mapping.