Belmonte vows to speed up delivery of social services
REELECTED Quezon City (QC) Mayor Joy Belmonte has committed to further expanding and hastening the delivery of social services to address the needs of the city residents.
Belmonte made the commitment during her inauguration last Wednesday, wherein she stressed that she would aim to “surpass” that achievement of her administration in her first term when it comes to social services.
In the same inauguration, Belmonte disclosed that the city government has received a second unqualified opinion from the Commission on Audit (COA) for its annual audit report for the year 2021.
“Tayo ay muling tumanggap ng ‘unqualified opinion’ sa ikalawang sunod na taon. Ibig sabihin, naging masinop ang ating paggastos ng pondo ng bayan alinsunod sa mga reglamento,” she said.
“Good governance is not something that you achieve and are done with. It is a continuing process that requires will and determination. We stay alert and stand firm, here and now, in our commitment and will exert every effort in the days to come to improve upon our hard-won gains,” she added.
It was the second straight unqualified opinion received by the QC government, which also earned its first “unqualified opinion” from the COA for its annual audit report for the year 2020.
COA Supervising Auditor Joseph Perez, who handed the report, informed Belmonte in a letter last Jan. 31 that his office has examined and evaluated pertinent details submitted in various letters by resident auditors in 2021.
According to Perez, previous reports about “lacking documents” have already been substantially complied with.”
The COA said “unqualified opinion”, also called unmodified opinion, is issued when the auditor concludes that the financial statements are prepared, in all material respects, following the applicable financial reporting framework.
“Hindi po sapat ang mga pasasalamat, kaya susubukan na lamang po naming tumbasan ng tapat ng paglilingkod ang inyong ipinahiram na tiwala sa amin,” Belmonte added.
Belmonte said that the city government “progressively” increased the budget for social services for the marginalized and underprivileged sectors from P9.8 billion to P16.1 billion this year.
“Our P16.1 billion budget for social services, which we intend to keep on increasing in the next three years, promises to be an inclusive social safety net for all marginalized and underprivileged sectors,” she said.
