BAGUIO CITY -- An official of this mountain resort city urged the City Government Saturday to hire a private auditor to check the city's expenditure on waste hauling.

Vice Mayor Daniel Fariñas said the proposed audit will show the actual cost of hauling of the garbage to Capas town in Tarlac province.

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But pending the audit, Representative Mauricio Domogan said the City Council should approve the supplemental budget for the two-month hauling of the city’s garbage.

The city’s garbage has piling up for weeks now, prompting Mayor Reinaldo Bautista to order the City Environment and Parks Management Office (Cepmo) to collect the piles of trash and dump it at the Irisan-controlled dumpsite.

The three weeks of pile-up garbage collected in only six barangays in the city on Friday filled up the Irisan transfer station and even reached the dumpsite's entrance.

The City Council recently voted against the allocation of additional funds to sustain two months worth of waste hauling to Capas, Tarlac.

Suspicion of irregularities committed during hauling was raised by some concerned sectors, some city officials, as well as by the public.

The vice mayor said the hiring of an “external or private auditor” will yield to an impartial result and remove doubts about the authenticity of the accounting on finances of the City Government, which earlier appropriated P1.2 million for garbage hauling.

Colleene Lacsamana, officer-in-charge of Cepmo, said half of the amount has already been spent.

"The result of the audit could be a subject of a comparative study concerning expenditures of other local government units relative to solid waste management, which could enhance the city's budgeting agenda on the same as supported by the appropriate legislative action," Fariñas added.

But Mayor Bautista said only the Commission on Audit (COA) could scrutinize transactions of government entities.

Bautista said all transactions of the Cepmo all went through the rigid procedures of the Government Procurement Act.

The City Council is also set to decide on whether it will continue allocating further money for the costly transfer of the city trash to Tarlac.

Meanwhile, Representative Domogan said that within the two-month period where the city will be dumping its garbage in Tarlac, the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for every barangay cluster must also be finished.

“We need to have a permanent solution as hauling will eat up the resources of the City Government,” Domogan said, adding that the city has other special needs except getting rid of its garbage.

Domogan said the city should focus on a permanent solution and implement this solution as soon as possible.

Lacsamana reported during the City Council's caucus Friday afternoon that 100 truckloads weighing 152 tons of trash have so far been hauled out from the transfer station.

She said Cepmo personnel are encountering problems on collection.

Lacsamana said waste collectors had to collect until the wee hours because on top of the pile-up, they also have to collect fresh batches of trash from various households.

Lacsamana appealed to barangay officials to inform their constituents not to bring out their trash, until Cepmo has collected all of the piled-up garbage.

Association of Barangay Councils president Joel Alangsab, for his part, said barangay officials are hard up in containing garbage in their respective villages.

"Every household could not keep their garbage forever. It has to be collected," Alangsab said, echoing the plea of village officials for the immediate resumption of collection.

Meantime, Lacsamana confirmed the dumpsite's use could be extended for another three to four months.

She said the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) already asked the City Government to submit a stability assessment report, which would include mitigating measures that would be done if the agency allows extension of use.

The assessment report will contain recommendations of the project engineer.

Quoting the assessment done by the project engineer, Lacsamana said the bottom part of the dump could still accommodate trash, but this has to be residual waste only.

She said mixed waste could not be dumped there to avoid leacheate from contaminating the ground.

The Cepmo is also awaiting the P8-million assistance promised by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last August, which was meant to complete the MRFs in various barangay clusters. (RO/VC/Sun.Star Baguio/Sunnex)