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Tuesday, September 20, 2005
No-show firm may no longer get CH projects
Snubbing the Cebu City Council thrice may affect the chances of a foreign consultant getting future projects with the City Government.
While Katahira and Engineers International may have their reasons for failing to appear before the City Council in an executive session after three invitations, Vice Mayor Michael Rama said they have learned their lesson.
Insulted by Katahira’s non-appearance, Rama, the council’s presiding officer, vowed to take this into consideration when they deliberate on measures pertaining to future projects with the consultants.
“It goes without saying. It’s a lesson learned. We’ll not get involved in it the next time. It’s okay. There’s no need to get mad. There are more projects to come,” Rama told a news conference yesterday.
Katahira, a consulting firm, has been contracted by the City Government to facilitate the preparation of the documents and other requirements to the titling of the South Reclamation Project (SRP) under a P3.4 million contract.
Papers
Despite the insult, the legislators are still looking forward to the assurance of SRP manager Nigel Paul Villarete that the SRP titles will be out soon.
“Good thing that a title is expected but it would have been better if a personality had appeared,” Rama said.
Rama admitted it was too much for the council to take, but they will be assured if the consultants and Villarete would keep on reporting to the mayor about the progress of their activities.
He said it would have been “Katahira’s play of strategy that they would love to resort to (not to reveal details except to the mayor).”
“But they would also be quick to resolve the issue. It’s enough lesson for us,” Rama said.
Despite three invitations from the council, Katahira legal counsel Alan Gaviola, their project manager S. Tiannok and another Japanese consultant did not show up to update the body on the progress of their contract.
Only Villarete appeared in two of the executive sessions to report on his office’s performance in the SRP titling.
Legwork
Villarete had said Katahira did all the rounds in Manila and coordinated with various government agencies involved in the titling process, including the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Also, Katahira made technical coordination in getting Malacañang’s approval on the two presidential proclamations for the SRP, declaring it as a special economic zone and transferring its ownership to Cebu City and declaring it as alienable and disposable.
The council then ordered the City Accounting Office to hold further releases of the consultancy fee to Katahira until they could submit their accomplishment report and other deliverables of their P3.4 million contract with the City.
Only P17,223 of the consultancy fee was left in their account with the City. (GAC)
(September 20, 2005 issue)
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