THE Provincial Board of Negros Occidental approved during its regular session Wednesday, February 14, the 2018 General Fund Supplemental Budget No. 2 amounting to P178 million intended to fund three infrastructure projects in the province.
The amount covers the construction of Ma-ao Public Market in Bago City worth P88 million, construction of Candoni Public Market amounting to P50 million, and rehabilitation of Calatrava District Hospital costing P40 million.
Second District Board Member Salvador Escalante Jr., chairman of committee on appropriation, budget and finance, said the province will source the fund from the Municipal Development Fund Office (MDFO) as loan.
The figure forms part of the total P1.5 billion allocated by the MDFO for Negros Occidental. Of the amount, about P1.2 billion already has appropriation ordinances approved by the Provincial Board.
Escalante said based on their meeting Wednesday, there are still three projects with pending detailed engineering thus, it cannot be tackled yet at the Board for supplemental budget approval.
“The approval of the supplemental budget request will be the basis to bid. So once signed by the governor, they can now start the bidding,” he said.
The project is given to recipient-localities for free while the province shoulders the payment for the loan, Escalante added.
Moreover, of the 42 items covered by the P1.5 billion fund, only the purchase of heavy equipment worth P128 million has hurdled the bidding process and already has a notice to proceed.
These heavy equipment including bulldozer, grader, back hoe, and dump trucks no longer need detailed engineering thus, the process is quite fast, Escalante said.
