Council wants departments to explain income

The City Council is seeking explanations from the different departments of the city government regarding their income and expenses in the previous year that ended in April 2006.

The council committee on budget and finance has also requested the head of the Division of Welfare of the Urban Poor to explain why it has not achieved its targets as stated in its Plans and Programs for 2006.

Likewise, the committee has requested the head of the Department of Public Services to submit to the council a report of its “innovations” on how to upgrade its garbage collection considering a sharp increase in the collection of garbage fees.

The council asked the heads of the two offices to submit their explanation before the month ends.

Of the 10 types of tax revenues, the committee observed that four failed to reach the 33.33 percent target collection.

Compared to figures in 2005, the collection for transfer tax in 2006 only reached 30.74 percent or P7.6 million while that for franchise tax only reached 6.04 percent or P1.2 million. The collection for amusement tax only reached 31.28 percent or P15.6 million while that for IRA only reached 28.33 percent or P181.5 million.

The committee, however, observed a sharp increase in the garbage collection fees to P39.6 million. With this positive development, the committee said “it is better that the Department of Public Services should be able to provide the needed services to our constituents considering that the city government has been collecting garbage fees.”

Meanwhile, the committee noted that the expenses for the Transport Office did not include the salaries of regular employees, which are charged to the budget of the General Services Office. Likewise, the expenses for the operation of the housing project did not include the salaries of casual employees as these were charged to the Office of the Mayor.

On results of operation of  various funds, the General Fund Proper had an income of P848.2 million but accumulated expenses of P232.4 million, gaining a net income of P615.7 million. The Special Education Fund had a P42.8 million income but had expenses of P12.3 million, gaining a net income of P30.5 million.

On the other hand, the Cebu City Resource Management and Development Center had an income of P2.9 million and expenses of P1.1 million, with a net income of P1.8 million. The income of the city hospital had reached P24.3 million with expenses pegged at P9 million, gaining a net income of P15.3 million.

The Traffic Management had an income of P18.5 million but spent P17 million, making a net income of P1.4 million. The city market had an income of P11 million and spent P4.8 million, gaining a net income of P6.1 million. The slaughterhouses’ income reached P5.9 million and its expenses was pegged at P2.1 million, making a net income of P3.7 million.  — Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM