The City Transportation and Traffic Maintenance Office on Monday has been asked to justify its proposed P36 million budget for 2017’s traffic signalization and maintenance.
The amount is almost 500 percent higher than the supposed budget worth P6 million for the maintenance of the 63 pedestrian and light junctions in Davao City.
For the 2017 budget, the City Council questioned the budget during a special session in Sanggguniang Panglungsod yesterday.
“What we noticed that CTTMO was asking for P36 million for the budget ang hiningi but they said it [the other P30 million budget] was used for other purposes such as ‘painting the pedestrian lanes’,” explained City Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, who heads the council committee on budget and finance.
He added that the CTTMO is asking for P36 million for the maintenance of the 63 signal light junctions in the city.
“When you look at the traffic maintenance, are you going to conduct bidding every year depending on the cost even without the approval of the city council or the administrator’s office for the appropriation of the project? The traffic per se may change, does any changes that need appropriation need the approval of the mayor or the council?,” Dayanghirang pointed out.
He added that the department should be very careful and not be lenient of whatever the office wants to be done.
Dayanghirang added the requested budget was “too much” and asked CTTMO to submit a breakdown of the proposed expenses.
They should be realistic, Dayanghirang said, pointing out that that CTTMO must bring all the records for the past 3 years for the signalization.
Dayanghirang added that the council would leave it to Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio on how to address or adjust the problem with the help of the city administrators.
“We are also following the ordinance to specify the appropriations for the purpose of whatever is intended for the budget, or else you will be accused… it’s an action that needs to be addressed,” he said.
