SP to scrap payment for CEO personnel in proposed P33M supplemental budget
The Sangguniang Panlungsod will scrap the P27,967.00 budget intended for the payment of overtime and night pay of City Engineer's Office (CEO) personnel who reportedly supervised the Dinagyang stage and demolition. The P27,967.00 was included in the P33,559,236.02 Proposed General Fund Supplemental Budget Number 2.
The decision was reached in the recent deliberation of the City Council where Councilor Ramon Cua-Locsin, head of the support group in the Dinagyang 2006 festival, opposed the inclusion and the release of such fund in the supplemental budget number 2.
The support group handled the stage construction and engineering, security, peace and order, health and first aid committee and sanitation and communication. Each committee have their own head with Locsin as over-all in charge.
Locsin said the CEO only took care of the stages at the Freedom Grandstand and in Mapa Street. The rest of the staging areas were contracted by private persons. He added he has not seen any personnel from the engineer's office when the stages were demolished after the occasion.
He added that all the working committees have their own budget and it is strange that the engineer's office wants to collect money out of the alleged service they rendered. "They should go to the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI) if they have collectibles."
The budget intended for the payment for the alleged service rendered by CEO personnel is only one of the allocations being questioned by the council in the proposed P33 million supplemental budget prepared by Mayor Jerry Treñas.
No details were released to the council on how many personnel and how many hours of service and what stage area they had supervised that covers the amount of P27,967.00.