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Saturday, March 27, 2004
Malabuyoc mayor, vice mayor spared in graft raps
THE Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas has ordered the month-long suspension of four town officials responsible for the alleged anomalous and overpriced purchase of medicines and supplies in Malabuyoc, Cebu.
Malabuyoc Mayor Lito Narciso Creus and Vice Mayor Ronald Quiñones, both running for reelection, were spared the penalty because the alleged anomalous transaction happened during their previous term.
The anti-graft office, quoting the Supreme Court, said that the two officials’ fresh terms in 2001 mean that their constituents condone what had happened.
However, a separate criminal case is reportedly being prepared against the two officials.
Creus and Quiñones, together with Municipal Health Officer Danilo Cabigon, Municipal Accountant Macrina Niaga, Municipal Treasurer Susan Peque and Disbursing Officer Rochelle Allera, were charged with violations of the anti-graft law after the Commission on Audit (COA) checked some transactions they made from February 1999 to March 2001.
Findings
Among the findings was that the respondents made separate requisitions for medicines and medical supplies that could have been bought as one batch, to circumvent COA rules on auditing.
Some P150,000 worth of medicines, for example, were bought volume by volume, with each purchase lower than the amount limit that would require mandatory bidding.
They also allegedly accepted and paid for P54,075.50 in expired medicines.
“The proximity of the intervals in the requisition of said supplies indicates that they were needed by the municipality at or about the same time. Perforce, said purchase orders could have been consolidated and undergone a public bidding,” the ombudsman said, adding the avoidance of public bidding is a violation of COA rules.
Creus and the other respondents denied the charge in both the counter-affidavit submitted to the criminal case and in their answer to the separately held administrative proceeding that was made by Graft Investigator Gaudioso Melendez.
Necessary
Creus and the other respondents said the purchase of the medicines was necessary and that they observed COA rules in doing so.
They added that the difference between the price of the medicines they bought and the price quoted by COA from other suppliers was normal because drug companies simply gave different prices.
On the issue of expired medicines, the respondents argued that they bought and received the medicines in good order but, because nobody used them, they expired. Government is only supposed to buy medicines that were in demand.
The anti-graft office, however, cannot administratively proceed against Creus and Quiñones because all the transactions were made before their reelection in May 2001.
The other respondents, meanwhile, were declared guilty because while they only facilitated the purchase, “they did not inhibit themselves from the processing of the transactions, nor did they annotate their objections on the document.” KNR |
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