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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Audit body: Docs on P50M phone project amiss
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
THE Commission on Audit (COA) revealed that three years have passed but the City Government failed to submit the complete documents for the "timely review and verification" of the contract for the P50 million City Rural Telephone System or Telepono sa Barangay.
The audit agency said COA laws provide that such documents should have been submitted to their office "within five days from the execution of the contract" by the government agency.
The Emano Administration also failed to submit for other multi-million contracts for review to the COA team as contained in their COA Annual Audit Report 2003, 2004, and recently in 2005.
This has made it impossible for the audit agency to determine the "reasonableness of the contract price" and whether the projects are undertaken pursuant to law.
Among the projects that lack submission of complete documents are: Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contracts and supporting documents for the controversial redevelopment of the Cogon Public Market, Carmen Public Market and City Slaughterhouse declared to be worth over P312 million by City Hall.
The audit team in its COA-Annual Audit Report 2005 said Emano's City General Services Office (CGSO) "failed to completely and promptly submit to the Office of the Audit Team Leader the necessary detailed engineering documents for timely review and verification of the contract for the P50 million City Rural Telephone System."
They cited COA Circular 76-34 dated July 15, 1976, which provides that "within five days from the execution of a contract by the government or any of its subdivisions, agencies or instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled corporations" a copy of the contract should be submitted to their office.
Also, "the documents forming part thereof of reference or incorporation, if any, such as the Advertisement for Bids, Instructions to Bidders, Abstract of Bids, Award General Conditions, Specifications, Proposal and Contract Book, Certificate of Availability of Funds, etc. shall be furnished the unit or agency auditor irrespective of amount."
COA auditors said the Emano administration is "required by law and/or rules and regulations to furnish the head of auditing unit with copies of contracts/orders and supporting documents."
"This is designated to enable the auditing unit to perform its duties relating to the post-audit of the transactions at the most appropriate time and manner without in any way delaying or obstructing the implementation or prosecution of the project," the COA report reads.
COA said it is the task of the CGSO, being the procurement office, to notify the Office of the Auditor "for the purpose of giving information with regards to the procurement activities of the city."
The audit body claimed that they have been requesting for these documents since three years ago.
"On our 1st Endorsement dated June 10, 2003, we returned to the Office of the City General Services, City General Services Department, this city the documents we received relative to the above-mentioned project with information that the desired contract review cannot be extended unless the documents enumerated therein will be submitted to our office," their report reads.
COA said they have reviewed and verified records on this project and discovered how City Hall appropriated the amount of P50 million for the Telepono sa Barangay Project in Calendar Year 2003.
They said "further verification of the disbursements disclosed that out of the P50 million appropriation a total of P31,544,261.24 as of December 31, 2005 was already paid to the Contractor, the Supplier Contractor and Networking Telecommunication, Inc. "
"Audit action on the disbursements will be held in abeyance pending receipts of the compliance as required under the aforementioned endorsement," their contract reads.
COA said they have given City Hall a chance to answer this observation per compliance of Audit Observation No. 2006-01-05 (100).
The auditors said City Hall submitted only some of the necessary documents and even asked for a time extension in submitting several other important documents.
This include the Approved Budget of Contract/Agency Estimate; Legible Copy of duly approved Program of Work with detailed back-up computation; Original copy of duly approved color coded Plans and Specifications; Certification issued by CIAP as required under Sec. 14.3.3 of IRR of EO 40; and DPWH Registry of Civil Works Contractors.
COA said the CGSO should now be required to hasten the submission of these documents "for review and evaluation purposes."
(August 2, 2006 issue)
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