Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Capitol workers face dishonesty charge for ‘stealing’ documents, consultant says
TWO Capitol employees were suspended for allegedly stealing documents in relation to the construction of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
Capitol consultant on discipline and investigation Hippocrates Rocina identified the employees as Doy Aloba and Matthew Garcia of the General Services Office (GSO).
The two were charged with dishonesty in the course of official duty, which is punishable by dismissal from service.
But their admission that they took the documents is considered a mitigating circumstance and their penalty was lowered to a month-long suspension “because our law is not only based on logic, but also on compassion,” Rocina said.
Rocina said the investigation did not cover whether the two had received anything for the documents. They must have done it just to “destroy the governor’s reputation,” he said. “Maybe they wanted to expose the governor to the media.”
The documents were believed to have been used by a local broadcaster to attack Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia on air, as well as by businessman Crisologo Saavedra in filing a complaint against her before the ombudsman.
The governor has been accused of pursuing anomalous transactions in the construction of the CICC, one of the venues of the 12th Asean Summit last January. It has also been alleged that the facility was overpriced.
In a meeting she hosted last May, the governor said the CICC had cost the Province P581 million, which was less than the P637 million allocated, up to that point, for the project.
She also said the average standard cost for comparable buildings was P1.17 billion, citing the “Construction Cost Handbook Philippines 2006.”
By June, the governor said in a media forum that the cost could hit P793.19 million , but that there was an “ongoing verification of billings submitted to the Capitol.”
Garcia has said she welcomes anybody who wants a copy of the documents, but she got angry at the employees for “stealing” them.
The two employees also allegedly lied in their pass slips.
Rocina said they indicated in their pass slips that they were going to the Government Service Insurance System, when they went to the house of GSO chief Bernard Calderon.
“Why didn’t they say they were going to the house of their chief?” Rocina said.
The suspension was supposed to take effect right after Garcia signed the order yesterday. (MBG)
