Wednesday, January 16, 2008 Graft complaint filed v. Compostela mayor
A COMPLAINT for alleged violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and certain provisions of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials has been filed against the mayor of Compostela, Cebu.
Municipal Councilor Tessa Paradiang-Cang accused Mayor Ritchie Wagas of illegally realigning government funds to cover the construction of a health clinic for pregnant women and for pushing through with it despite the council’s disapproval.
Wagas, in an interview with ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol Central Visayas, described the complaint as political harassment.
5 others
Cang impleaded five other people in the charge—Sylvia Malacad, the municipal accountant; Lorenzo Almodiel, treasurer; Lourdes Salingua, budget officer; Jonah Suacillo, engineer; and Carmelo Tejero, bids and awards committee (BAC) chairperson.
Cang wants all of them placed under preventive suspension.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas received the complaint last Jan. 11.
Based on the anti-graft office’s internal rules, however, the complaint still needs to be evaluated to determine if it is sufficient in form and in substance. Only if found sufficient will the agency treat it as a formal investigation.
“Contrary to existing rules and guidelines, respondent Wagas, through his co-conspirators, above-named BAC members, caused the bidding of the aforementioned project despite the fact that the finding required, which amounted to P4.6 million, has not been appropriated for it,” Cang’s complaint read.
Wagas reportedly began to carry out the project last September.
The program of work was prepared by Suacillo, with Malacad and Salingua allegedly certifying that funds have been allotted for the project.
Misrepresentation
“The certifications of respondents Malacad and Salingua on the program of works is a gross misrepresentation because no funds have been allotted and/or appropriated for the project,” said Cang.
She said Wagas wrote to the council last July 19, asking that the P1.2 million under the continuing appropriation of the Municipality be re-aligned to the construction.
The council, she said, denied the request through a resolution that Wagas supposedly “vetoed;” one that they subsequently overrode.
However, Cang said Wagas continued to implement the project in an “audacious and shameful defiance” of the council’s decision.
“The act of the above-named respondents of realigning the funds to a project for which it was not appropriated without authority of the Sangguniang Bayan constitutes a violation of Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code as amended, also known as technical malversation,” Cang’s complaint said. (KNR)
