MikeLigalig.com

By Kit Bagaipo
Published by the Bohol Chronicle

Tagbilaran City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso hits back at Mayor Dan Lim as he questioned the passage of a P15.2 million supplemental fund which was approved during his absence.

Last Saturday's "Mayor's Report", Lim taunted the vice mayor on the latter's disappointment regarding the adoption of a new schedule of regular session at the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) and the railroading of the new supplemental fund.

Veloso said he sees no urgency in adopting the two measures while intimating a "hidden agenda" of the SP's majority bloc allied with the mayor.

The vice mayor, who was invited for an official trip in Australia, was dismayed that for 3 months, the SP Committee on Rules did not act on the changing of the session day.

According to Veloso, before he left the country, a request by the mayor for supplemental appropriation amounting P4.9 million was rejected by the SP as it "was not properly addressed". The request was eventually withdrawn.

The mayor's letter was addressed to Kag. Oscar Glovasa, chair of the SP Committee on Appropriations, instead of being referred to Veloso and the SP as whole.

Veloso pointed out that the supplemental budget should not have been approved outright, as the mayor himself declared that financial matters and fund appropriations be discussed and reviewed thoroughly.

"We are only in the second quarter of the year, yet we are already having a supplemental budget," Veloso said.

The passage of the P15.2 million fund was calendared as special order of the day (SOD) and was not even referred to the Committee on Appropriations, according to the vice mayor who checked records of the minutes of the June 25 regular session.

"Budgets should be plan or program-based." Veloso added that the minutes of the executive session of the SP showed that several items were not discussed carefully.

Based on the minutes of the executive session, the vice mayor noted questionable items such as the payment of P200,000 for consultants' services under the office of the mayor, donations amounting P600,000, maintenance and operating expenses of P3 million, land purchase of P7 million and intelligence fund worth P1.5 million.

The P7 million allocated for the acquisition of land is not included in the annual investment plan of the city, Veloso said.

Moreover, it was also manifested in the minutes of the executive session that the intelligence fund was needed as the appropriation for it was already exhausted during the visit of Pres. Gloria Arroyo last May.

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