City’s undisbursed balance of P31M to be used this year

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government has P31.4 million worth of undisbursed balances from year 2001 to 2011, which the City Council plans to utilize for this year’s projects.

 City Accountant Officer-in-charge Mark Rossel Solomon confirmed the undisbursed balances following his submission of report showing the “prioritized charges” earmarked against PAGCOR Funds under the city’s Trust Fund account which totaled to P31,441,387.13 as of December 2013.

 In a letter dated April 3 and 20, 2014, Cebu City Councilor Jose Daluz III requested for the cancellation of all prioritized PAGCOR charges that were not utilized in 2001 to 2011 to “accommodate current charges” with the approval of Mayor Michael Rama.

 However, Councilor Noel Wenceslao moved to refer first the matter to the committee on budget for perusal.

 Some of the prioritized projects were for the concreting of lined canals worth P1.1 million for Echavez street Barangay Lorega-San Miguel; construction of multi-purpose building amounting to P630,000 in Barangay Pung-ol Sibugay; P460,400 for nine units of motorcycles for mobility augmentation for the peace and order program of the city and P300,000 for one unit of a service bus for Barangay Sambag 1, among others.

 To realign the undisbursed balances, Solomon said it needs a council resolution to utilize the said amount.

 â€œAs to the real status of the undisbursed balances of the said projects, the city accounting office has no knowledge if there will be no more claims on these,” the city accountant said.

 â€œWe wish to remind you (City Council), that the realignment of undisbursed balances o PAGCOR prioritized projects should be supported by an approved Sangguniang Panlungsod resolution and that any claims chargeable against these realigned projects will be reprioritized,” he added.  (FREEMAN)