THE city government of Manila posted a whopping P5.107 billion budget surplus in 2019, up 161 percent compared to P1.954 billion in 2018, financial statements attached to the 2019 Commission on Audit (COA) report on the capital city released showed.
The city’s revenue performance for the year likewise hit P16.534 billion, which was P2.381 billion higher than the P14.152 billion posted the year before.
On the other hand, 2019 operating expenses dropped to P10.946 billion which was P462 million lower than the P11.408 billion incurred in 2018.
All these even while the city government’s 2019 payroll expenses climbed to P4.629 billion from P4.3 billion in 2018.
The Personnel Services breakdown showed wages and salaries went up to P2.948 billion from P2.792 billion year in year, while allowances and bonuses registered a small uptick at P1.08 billion in 2019 as opposed to 1.02 billion in 2018.
Personnel Benefits also went up to P600.367 million in 2019 compared to P490.416 million in 2018.
However, Manila’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) dropped to P5.162 billion in 2019 against P6.114 billion in 2018 — a difference of P952 million.
Non-cash expenses representing depreciation of the local government’s assets including buildings, motor vehicle fleet, furniture and fixtures and other properties and equipment increased however to P1.15 billion in 2019 from P985.75 million the year before.
Among the MOOE items that caused the biggest drop year on year (2018 against 2019) were: food supplies expense – (P9.085 million from P241.85 million); drugs, medicines and expenses (P84.726 million from P198.14 million); medical, dental and laboratory supplies (P11.773 million from P255.69 million); other supplies and materials (P37.904 million from P111.03 million).
