Province spent P550 million in first quarter of 2018

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu provincial government spent P550 million in the first quarter of the year.

Provincial Accountant Ramon Dumayac said that the biggest chunk of the expenses is attributed to the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) which totalled to P332.5 million.

Payment for personal services, which included wages and benefits to its employees and job orders, ranked second with a total of P159.8 million. This is higher than that of last year as stated in the Capitol’s full disclosure board.

At present, there are approximately 3,000 employees, who are either regular, casual or job order workers, according to the Human Resources and Development Office.

The third major contributor is the depreciation cost of the provincial government’s real properties such as building and equipment which amounted to P58 million.

Dumayac explained that the data consolidation for the second quarter of the year is still ongoing due to the tedious and more detail-oriented coding of the new government accounting system.

Meanwhile, the revenues generated by the provincial government in the first six months of 2018 are up by 17.27 percent as compared to the same period of last year.

From P1.798 billion in 2017, the Capitol income rose to P2.1 billion by the end of June, according to Assistant Provincial Treasurer Emmanuel Guial.

The biggest chunk of the revenue is attributed to the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) received by the provincial government which is equivalent to 52.23 percent of the mid-year income.

It is followed by non-tax receipts which gave the Capitol P159 million.

The collection from the provincial hospitals contributed P139.1 million and the local revenues amounted to P122.6 million.

He said that if this trend continues, there would be no doubt that Capitol will reach its P4.039 billion revenue target by the end of this year.

Last year, the provincial government closed the year with P3.5 billion, which is P200 million higher than their year-end target.

Chronologically, the Capitol earned P2.8 billion, P3.09 billion, and P3.54 billion in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively. The annual income trend of the Capitol is consistently going up, observed Guial.

Since 2014 to 2016, Cebu Province is proclaimed by the Commission on Audit(COA) as the richest province in the Philippines. In the Visayas, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, and Leyte also made it to the top 10 list.

The 2017 list is yet to be published by COA.

Dumayac explained that the net income of the Cebu Provincial Government can be determined by subtracting the expenditures from the income. — GAN (FREEMAN)