December 10, 2015 WDJ
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) has again failed for the fifth time to grant acting City Administrator Goldwyn Nifras an authority to co-sign checks and documents in behalf of the city government in yesterday’s session. This developed with Nifras still confined at the hospital and could not appear in the session, and the SP insisting to first get answers from him to questions the SP believes important to them. According to acting Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, the members of the legislative body had a lot of questions that Nifras should answer before they could give him the signing authority. Without this authority of Nifras to sign checks and other government documents, Familiaran said the City Treasurer Office cannot release the salaries of regular employees because the city usually sources its funds from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), which asked for an SP resolution granting Nifras an authority to co-sign checks withdrawn from the bank. Familiaran said the decision depends on acting Mayor Greg Gasataya now if he will consider signing the checks in order to release the salaries of regular employees, as may be possible under the circumstances. “It’s now up to him and his legal team to consider the situation as a matter of emergency, under which the mayor may sign the checks for the salaries of the regular employees,” Familiaran stressed. Familiaran revealed that Nifras has been requested to attend next week’s regular session, when the signing authority may already be granted to him. The acting vice mayor observed that the city may probably pay a 25 percent penalty with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) if the city fails to pay its withholding tax today. On the other hand, Councilor Archie Baribar, majority floor leader of the SP, said he wanted to find a way for a win-win solution. Meantime, however, the council decided to defer the ordinance he proposed in connection with Nifras’ authority. Baribar believed that there is a need for an executive-legislative caucus to talk about the matter. But the schedule for the caucus was not also pushed through. Baribar said he still has “boundless optimism” that things will work out soon. On the other hand, City Treasurer Giovanni Balalilhe, who appeared before the SP yesterday, said he already prepared the check, which will be withdrawn from the LBP once Nifras will be granted the required authority. However, they may not possibly withdraw from the bank for the salaries of regular employees because of SP’s failure to act on Nifras’ authority. “The present situation can really affect the transactions of the city government,” Balalilhe lamented./WDJ Watchmen Daily Journal By Glazyl Jane Marie Y. Masculino
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