Egay Uy
ARE the documents required by the city council to be submitted by the various city government departments and offices indispensable to the approval of the P4.8 billion proposed 2016 budget of the city government?
Up to what extent can the city council require the executive department to submit requirements to justify the latter’s proposed budget for the ensuing year?
There are four phases in the budgeting process. First is the budget preparation which is responsibility of the executive department (city mayor). This phase includes the preparation of budgets by the various city government departments and offices, including the office of the city vice mayor.
The second phase is the budget authorization where the budget proposed by the executive is approved through legislation. This is within the powers of the city council.
The third phase is the budget execution which is within the scope of authority of the local chief executive. And the fourth phase is budget accountability where the executive department or the office that executes the budget is made accountable for the expenditures and expenses based on the approved budget. This is where the Commission on Audit comes into the picture.
As stated in the Nov. 6, 2015 letter of Mayor Moreno to the presiding officer of the city council committee on the whole he said, “These procedures such as unreasonable data requirement is no longer within the budgeting process but rather more on auditing, in which, the Commission on Audit (COA), is the right agency to do the job.”
It is therefore still unlikely that the local legislative body will approve the P4.8-billion budget proposed by the executive department. And the people of Cagayan de Oro will continue to suffer from the effects of the political conflict, cushioned only by the creativeness and “out-of-the-box” mind of Mayor Oscar S. Moreno and his chiefs of office and department heads.
(Egay Uy is a lawyer, a city hall consultant, and the chairman of Task Force Hapsay Dalan.)
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