Wednesday, March 07, 2007 Editorial: Summit lamps: shocking overprice
EVEN before people learned the specific cost of decorative lamps along ceremonial route in the January Asean summit, many were already convinced the items were overpriced.
Businessman Crisologo Saavedra helped. Though he is a supplier whose bid was rejected and who may be sour-graping, his charge is not empty.
Saavedra provided solid data to the Visayas ombudsman looking into the summit purchases.
He is in the business himself and the costs he gathered was from the same source that produced the lamps the winning bidders sold to Cebu City, and cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
The suspects
Technically, it was Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that made the purchase. DPWH 7, washing its hands, points to its central office.
Are the LGUs off the hook? Surely not. Those who transact with government know that DPWH deals with fund beneficiaries, in this case, officials of the three cities.
Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu particularly can't claim innocence. In preparing programs of work, they might have colluded with DPWH Manila in rigging prices. As to Cebu City, it may be faulted for not looking closely at the cost.
The LGUs are not sources of the fund but they are still bound to check what they were getting from the national government money spent on their cities. Besides, did they not expect they could be suspected, as they are now being suspected, of sharing in ill-gotten proceeds?
Staggering gap
Many people thought an overprice was likely (after all, it's nothing new in our culture and times) but they must still be shocked over its size.
Consider the accusation on the table:
l Lamps bought for P224,000 each for Mandaue City, when they could have been secured from another supplier for P31,000 each because their price at source in China is only P11,000 each.
l Lamps bought for P85,000 each for Cebu City, when the other supplier offered to sell at P24,000 each because he could get them from the China source for only P8,500 each.
Those responsible may cite the number of people who share the pie, but must they be so greedy? The gap between acquisition cost and selling price is simply staggering.
Cut up one lamp and post, will they bare jewels to match the price?
Until culprits are named and prosecuted, the lamps stand as cold reminder of corruption and our inability to overcome it.
