“BEAR WITH US,” NEW SORSOGON CITY GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION TAKES THE ISSUES ONE STEP AT A TIME (71113) SORSOGON City Administrator Atty. Cesar J. Balmaceda disclosed yesterday that the major pain from the time (July 1st) when Mayor Sally Ante Lee’s administration took over is the City Government’s shortfall in finances. “We still have the resources; however, from our IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment) of P25 million a month, P18 million goes to the salaries of our permanent employees,” the City Administrator explained. “At this point in time, we can’t even afford to pay for contractual workers and in like manner, our traffic enforcers,” he added. Furthermore, the City Government pays for its regular electric consumption bill which normally values roughly at P1 million for each month. “Another pecuniary constraint is that we have to shell out for gasoline to put our eleven (11) garbage trucks into service, but in the meantime while the City is in tight budget, the Provincial Government is providing us two (2) more trucks to shore up our garbage collection,” Atty. Balmaceda once more explicated. He added that for a week’s gas spending, the City Government pays up to P118 thousand which gets to more or less half-a-million in a month’s time. But, one step at a time, the new City Administration is getting to the bottom of every concern, Balmaceda said. “For the time being – our traffic enforcers, street cleaners and garbage collectors are doing their job on their own free will,” he said. City Administrator Balmaceda likewise divulged that the previous Dioneda Administration ran off with P7 million worth of unpaid salaries for June 2013 of two thousand contractual workers. “We are at present trying to find means to pay these employees,” he said. Overdraft, the City Government for the past six years never had the chance to achieve the prestigious Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH), Balmaceda said. “So, bear with us, we are only ten (10) days old” he said. These statistics were revealed during an initial dialogue with stakeholders to introduce a traffic scheme which takes action to various grievances of drivers, commuters and businesses along Sorsogon City’s main thoroughfares. The new two-way traffic system was brought in to suggest what the new administration can do as an answer to linking problems which affected the city, beginning with the traffic flow; locations which cause traffic congestion; holding, waiting, and dispatch areas for north and south-bound tri-mobile, jeepney, vans and buses; loading, unloading and parking areas; and proposed traffic lights along the city’s major intersections. The City Government marks the implementation of a new traffic scheme by August this year. Earlier, Mayor Sally Lee emphasized the need to re-establish the two-way traffic system, particularly along Sorsogon City’s main access roads under one of her (Team Sally) slogans “BISAY NA TRAPIKO, GINHAWA KAN GABOS!” (Save Sorsogon City Movement)
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 03:51:21 +0000
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