Amendment to city budget office’s organizational structure pushed

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia has proposed an amendment to City Ordinance No. 2537 entitled “An Ordinance Approving the Organizational Structures of the City Budget Office of Cebu City by Creating Additional Divisions, Sections, and Positions of the Office and Appropriating Funds Therefor”.

The proposed measure was referred to the Committee on Laws, Ordinances, and Styling for review. The council approved CO 2537 during its session on June 25, 2019.

Section 1 of the approved ordinance provided for the creation of additional divisions, sections, and positions in the city budget office.

The said section, in part, provides one Admin. Aide III (Clerk 1) - Salary Grade 3 each under the Budget Preparation Division (General Fund Budget Evaluation and Reporting Section); Budget Execution and Accountability Division (General Fund Budget Execution and Accountability Section and Special Education Fund Budget Execution and Accountability Section).

However, on January 3, 2022, City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia wrote to Garcia, who is the chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Budget and Finance, conveying that the said positions contained an error.

Gumia cited that the provision, as is, would unwittingly require a subprofessional/first level eligibility with the same salary grade and step (SG3/1) and that the same was mistakenly overlooked. She said that Clerk 1 should be replaced with Utility Worker II.

The position was revised to one Admin Aide III (Utility Worker II) - Salary Grade 3 each under the General Fund Budget Evaluation and Reporting Section; General Fund Budget Execution and Accountability Section; Special Education Fund Budget Execution and Accountability Section, which are under Budget Preparation Division and Budget Execution and Accountability Division.

The recommended positions under the revised plantilla of the City Budget Office shall have qualifications based on the Qualification Standards of the Civil Service Commission and CSC Memorandum Circular No. 42 series of 1998 and M.C. No. 12 series of 2003.

CO 2537 states that the city budget office represents the policies and planning cluster and the support services cluster of the city government that is tasked in the overall programming and management of the budgetary provisions of the city which includes the estimation of the city’s income and resources and appropriations needed to carry the implementations of programs, projects, and activities.

“The City Budget Office needs to create additional divisions and sections in order to meet the demands of the public for optimum service delivery and for better organizational structure fitted to answer and respond to the needs of the entire city government particularly on the financial and budgetary matters,” read the ordinance. — FPL (FREEMAN)