IT is not correct to conclude that the City Government was short of its targeted income on the year 2018. The truth of the matter is that the P5.525-billion budget was funded not just from Local Revenues and Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) but also from surplus from prior years of P825.2 million. For 2018, total actual revenues of the City reached P3.631 billion, which was 20 percent higher than the 2017 actual revenues of P3.036 billion.
Take note that the budget can be funded not only from local revenues but from surplus and/or borrowings. We did not resort to borrowings and instead we used the city’s surplus, and we wish to emphasize that we did not operate on a deficit budget either. We have an ambitious budget though, and this is because we have to aim high to serve the people the best way possible.
How was it possible that we did not spend over and above our resources? We imposed fiscal controls. One of these is the imposition of 30 percent Mandatory Reserve on the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) of the budget, mainly as a mechanism/allowance to income collection deficiency and to encourage economy and efficiency in spending.
Some appropriations like that for Capital Outlays were also placed under the Needing Clearance portion and were not released unless considered a priority based on its urgency and on their impact on the revenue generation strategies, as well as the infrastructure investment-related projects of the city.
We wish also to emphasize that the Moreno administration has faithfully honored and paid our statutory obligations, including loans contracted by the previous administration, and we are proud to inform also that we are now updated in paying even our water and electricity and even premiums to GSIS, Pagibig, etc., where before prior years’ unpaid obligation was inherited.
We also prioritized employees’ benefits and is ahead on the payment of updated and increased salary rates of the whole bureaucracy.
Finally, we are also proud that the Bureau of the Local Government Finance (BLGF) has ranked Cagayan de Oro as Number One, among Mindanao Cities, in terms of Local Sourced Revenue Collection Efficiency, at the rate of 51.39 percent.
This means that our dependency is at less than 50 percent. –Oscar S. Moreno, mayor, Cagayan de Oro
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