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Thursday, July 28, 2005
Winston files P2.3M suit vs. 6 COA probers over memos
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
GSIS President and General Manager Winston Garcia filed a civil suit against six Commission on Audit (COA) investigators, charging them for damages and demanding P2.3 million in compensation.
Their fault: they issued a series of reports containing findings and observations alleging that Garcia and other GSIS officials “violated the provisions of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act as amended and other existing laws, rules and regulations.” The reports were called Administrative Order Memoranda (AOMs).
The findings, released sometime last January, covered the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) eCard program, the compensation and benefits package of GSIS officials, which places Garcia’s salary higher than that of President Arroyo, the establishment of the subsidiary firm GSIS Properties Inc. (GPI), and the cash advances made against the agency’s discretionary allowances budget.
Investigators
The respondents are Raquel Ramirez-Habitan, Leonor Baodo, Joel Estolatan, Rhoda Pileña, Alexander Juliano and Rosalinda Salvador. Habitor is an assistant commissioner and the agency’s general counsel. The rest are members of the special audit team Habitan created to probe GSIS.
Among the COA’s findings of the eCard program:
* The implementation of the eCard program was allegedly awarded to Union Bank of the Philippines without public bidding;
* The award was made ahead of the preparation of the benefit-cost analysis and its technical report;
* The “limited source bidding” allegedly “did not comply” with the requirements of law and regulations; and
* The eCard program will result in the loss of P1,273,625,729 in estimated income for the government-owned Land Bank of the Philippines because the amount, representing loan processing fees and interest earnings of alternative investments exclusive of income, now goes to Union Bank.
Displeased
In his complaint dated July 19, 2005 and filed here in Cebu City, Garcia, brother of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, said the contents of the AOMs are “false and unfounded.”
He was expressed displeasure that the AOMs found their way to the newsrooms of various media outlets in Manila, which made it the subject of commentaries.
It also allegedly found its way into the desk of Iloilo Rep. Rolex T. Suplico, who “used it to issue a press statement on the matter and discredit and malign” GSIS officials.
A congressional inquiry was also launched over the findings contained in the AOMs, which were subsequently consolidated into a Special Audit Report, dated March 29, 2005.
Winston said he filed a petition last April 15 to nullify the special audit report, indicating that the conclusions stated that there was “ no factual and legal basis.”
No official stand
But until now, Winston has yet to receive any official stand of the COA on the matter.
He said in his complaint that COA officials “conspired” in providing Rep. Suplico and the broadcast media copies of the audit reports “to be used to defame” him and other GSIS officials.
The audit that the respondents carried out was “without legal authority” from the beginning because Habitan had no authority to order it, Winston said.
The order should have come from the COA chairman who, by GSIS charter, is the agency’s ex-officio auditor.
He said it is COA that violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act by issuing “false, unfounded and malicious findings and observations” and then “prematurely disseminating the adverse findings and observations to unauthorized persons and the public” that subjected them to “public ridicule and contempt.”
(July 28, 2005 issue)
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