Bloating the budget
UR city vice mayor already expresses support on the proposed P6.5 billion budget for 2019. “Aprobahan for sure basta para sa kaayuhan sa tao,” he said.
Is this something to be excited about? Not quite. In fact, we should be worried.
You see, the legislative department, headed by the vice mayor, is the gate keeper of all our local money. Not a single peso can be spent without an appropriate ordinance from our city council. That is how powerful they are collectively, to an extent even more powerful than the mayor. We have had a taste of how a legislative council can bully a local chief executive not so long ago with their zero budget scheme. That is even perhaps the reason why we voted for a new set of lawmakers to work with the mayor, but not for the mayor.
And while I am one with the Kagayanons in supporting all worthwhile projects of the city, it does not imply for me to be a blind follower or a passive spectator. And I expect nothing less of that from our esteemed councilmen. A city council with an all “no” is not good, but a city council with an all “yes” is even more dangerous. Imagine just how dangerous it is if they will just approve everything the mayor wants, and by the way the budget proposal is actually everything that the mayor wants in a fiscal year.
They, our legislators, have to play the critical “no” or “yes” for a check and balance to work.
Now why am I apprehensive about Kikang’s initial support? You have to understand a bit about budget proposals and their implications. You see, the budget proposal is what it is - a proposal. In short, there is no actual money yet involved. We cannot know for certain if our treasurer can collect such amount, especially a bloated amount at that. I highly doubt if they were even able to collect this year’s P5 Billion target.
What I am saying is that if such proposal is approved, it automatically becomes a law. As such it becomes a blanket power for the executive department to spend something they have not even collected yet. Making them spend our money not equitably. They can hire more people even if there is no actual money to pay them yet. And just so to make these new hires happy, other projects will be sacrificed.
The thing is that, this tactic has been used by so many mayors and governors so that they will have a more leeway in their spending.
Well that is not totally bad, please don’t get me wrong. Those things have their own advantages and disadvantages considering the kind of bureaucracy that we have. But with the kind of politics that we have as well, it is always safer to approve a conservative budget proposal.
The P6.5 billion proposed budget is just too high. I am almost certain that such target cannot be achieved. And if I’m right on this, some major plans won’t be implemented. It will result to organizational struggle and I would even think it would not be good for all the incumbent officials politically, because it will surely create public frustration just before the elections.
From the looks of it, this article will not make a dent on their made up plans already. But at least it can educate our readers about such game. And perhaps pressure our councilmen to be more critical in examining the executive budget proposal.