"MAYOR OF THE NIGHT" HITS SNAG

A PROPOSED P12.5 million lease for an IT Park space for the Mayor of the Night program is pending due to the absence of legal and budgetary requirements coming from the executive department.

The Cebu City Sanggunian budget and finance committee, chaired by Councilor Dave Tumulak, explained that it can't endorse the rental contract until the Mayor's Office secures full legal and budgetary compliance, warning that proceeding without a multi-year contracting authority could expose the City to audit disallowances and financial liability.

Let's remember that our city's treasury is not awash with funds and P12.5 million is P12.5 million, isn't it?

Which leads us to ask this question: Is it really necessary to lease an IT Park space for Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña's initiative called Mayor of the Night?

Can they not instead save the amount for a three-year lease by utilizing the City Hall itself as the program's location?

Yes, the initiative is laudable but do we have to purposely rent an IT Park office space just to have it implemented?

We are hoping that the city leadership would be more prudent in spending our hard-earned taxes.