Mayor Sagarbarria denies Dumaguete is “bankrupt”

CEBU, Philippines - The Dumaguete City government has more than P255 million in bank deposits and is not cash-strapped as feared by many, according to Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria on Friday.

Sagarbarria, in proving his declaration, presented a summary statement from the City Treasurer's Office that the city government (as of July 31, 2014) has a total of P255,909,918.65 million deposited in different banks within the city.

The mayor said the summary statement can prove the city is not lacking in money for its expenditures, denying public speculation the city government was going "bankrupt."

Councilor Antonio Remollo told reporters the City Council has invited the local finance committee to the next regular session to shed light on the true current financial status of the city, after several employees complained of the delay in the release of their loyalty pay.

Also, some employees holding casual-plantilla positions were reportedly not paid of their wages on time with some of them having received their salaries for the second half of July only this week.

City Administrator William Ablong told The Freeman, in a telephone interview Friday, that the delay in the release of loyalty awards was caused by the reconstruction of the list of employees qualified for such incentive.

Ablong said some city government workers had also claimed to be qualified for the loyalty award and as such, the city had to go through the same process of list reconstruction all over again.

He however assured that the loyalty awards will be released next week, but without mentioning how many were qualified to receive these. .

On the delayed salaries of casual plantilla workers, Ablong admitted there were some technicalities with the Commission on Audit.

Ablong said the salaries of some of these workers, which used to be charged to the MOOE, or the maintenance and other operating expenses, had to be transferred to the lump sum appropriation instead.

The City Council, in last Thursday's regular session, approved the request for such transfer, based on the COA guidelines and so as not to further delay the payment of wages for the city's casual workers, Ablong added.  (FREEMAN)