Balbalan local gov’t not worried on P3M fund cut

by Peter A. Balocnit

BALBALAN, Kalinga -- The local government unit here is not worried on its budget cut next year as it is doing proper management of its finances and generating local revenues to replace the amount of decrease.

Mayor Kenneth Mangaoang said they have nothing to worry since the LGU has the capacity to generate income and is judiciously spending its budget on priority needs in accordance to accounting rules and regulations.

He said they received an information from Cordillera Budget and Management Director Liza Fangsilat that their internal revenue allotment (IRA) for 2012 will be reduced by P3 million from P70M this year to P66.6 in 2012.

“That amount reduced from our 2012 IRA can be augmented from local tax collections. We are collecting from business permits, clearances, real property taxes, equipment rental fees, lighting services, and interest from LGU loan programs,” Mangaonag said.

“In fact our 2010 collection from these sources reached P3.9M, increase by 8.72% which is also projected be higher this year,” he said. The gap in IRA reduction, he said, has no significant effect on local governance since budgets for the respective departments increase a little this year.

“This is a belt tightening challenge. As done in the past during times of crisis, we have to be wiser in our spending and to account every centavo of our budget. We are prepared even caught by surprise like the sudden budget fall, to maximize the use of our financial resources,” Mangaoang said.

Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Eric Gonayon said one way of checking the budget fall is to deliberate on the 2012 budget item by item to determine if they are necessary in the delivery of public service. “With the department heads, every item has to be scrutinized during budget allocation hearings,” he said.

“Since we are still preparing our 2012 budget, a thorough review by the Sangguniang Bayan has to take place. We will all sit down during our budget deliberations with department heads to consider only those priority programs and projects that have significant impacts,” Gonayon said.