Editorial: Time to explain

THE past few days, the City Government of Cagayan de Oro has been deluged with controversies brought about by the annual audit report released by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Based on the COA audit report, the City Government did not follow the requirements stipulated under Republic Act 9184 or “An act providing for the modernization, standardization and regulation of the procurement activities of the government and for other purposes” for the modernization of the city’s traffic light system.

The COA implied that a bidding be conducted to give “all bidders a fair playing field.”

City officials earlier said the installed digital traffic lights were for demonstration purposes only, that’s why bidding was not yet conducted.

But some critics view it otherwise, as they claimed that the traffic lights were for real – meaning, these were the products of the P100 million loan that the City Government applied from a bank to finance the so-called modern traffic lights system, some of which sometimes get busted causing heavy traffic.

The COA report also showed that the City Government failed to submit the perfected contracts of lease and other supporting documents for the vacant spaces at the Cogon and Carmen Public Markets.

The City Government only submitted copies of ordinances “ordaining the lease of the 2nd and 3rd floors of Cogon Public Market and the 2nd Floor of Carmen Public Market.”

City Mayor Vicente Emano and 12 city councilors are now facing graft charges after the businessman who rented the 2nd floor of the Carmen Public Market sued them for terminating his contract of lease allegedly due to some “violations and inconsistencies.”

As these controversies hound the City Government, some officials are trying to deviate away from the issue by asking COA to also release the annual audit report of Misamis Oriental.

It was learned that both the annual audit reports of Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro were released at the same time but only the latter’s report was made public.

Being a public document, COA must also release Misamis Oriental’s audit report.

However, releasing the province’s report would not erase the fact that there are anomalies at City Hall that need to be investigated, for the sake of the taxpaying Kagay-anons.

If COA releases Misamis Oriental’s report and anomalies are also found, let the Provincial Government answer them. For the meantime, City Hall needs a lot of explaining to do.