ZAMBOANGA CITY – The City Council called on the City Treasurer’s Office and the Mayor of Zamboanga on Thursday to furnish the council with details of some P2.1 billion in time deposits of the city government in local banks.
The resolution that calls for the full disclosure of the city’s time deposits was approved by the majority in the City Council, including councilors allied with the mayor.
The City Treasurer’s Office has declined to answer these calls from the City Council.
Councilor Rommel Agan said: “The City Government cannot continue and pursue the projects because the cost estimate of the projects is not anymore realistic given the many years it remained idle. So the funds need reversion,” Agan pointed out.
The councilor said the funds deposited in banks are public funds and anybody can scrutinize the details of the banking account.
“The bank secrecy law cannot be invoked here because the account is not a personal account of any official in the city,” he added.
Agan explained that this week’s resolution is the third that the City Council approved this year to call for disclosure. The first request was made last January, another last month and the third last Thursday.
“The public ought to know as to the details of the time deposits. It should not be kept in secret to the people,” Agan stressed.
Councilor Mel Sadain also said that these calls for disclosure of the city’s time deposit has been made several times for the past five or so years but the City Mayor’s Office has repeatedly denied the request.
This P2.1-billion time deposit kept in several banks in this city has been accumulating for the past years. The City Mayor’s Office has not taken any step to ask the City Council to reprogram these funds for other pressing projects in the city.
In the case of the P200-million fund intended for an Integrated Bus Terminal (IBT) for the city, the project cannot be implemented because of a court case against the city mayor while the money has been approved for the projects since four years ago.
There is a P100-million fund for the construction of a multi-level parking lot behind city hall that has been “sleeping in the bank,” for almost four years.
Sadain said there are also several other multimillion- peso projects unimplemented through the years.
He said the City Council only wants to know these “forgotten projects” as the funds have been deposited back in the banks as it is considered idle funds.
It is only the City Council that can approve projects and thus, the councilors must see the listing of these projects so the councilors can abandon or use the money for other pressing projects in the city. (Felino Santos/PNA)
Link: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=411504
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