Wednesday, February 13, 2008 Lampposts on A. C. Cortes Ave. not part of contract
REPRESENTATIVES of Fabmik Construction and Equipment Corp. uprooted the 44 lampposts along A. C. Cortes Ave. in Mandaue City, as these were not covered by the contract with the government, a Mandaue City official said yesterday.
City Administrator Briccio Boholst said the supplier confirmed last year in a meeting with Mayor Jonas Cortes that the 44 items were not covered in the contract. In that meeting, Fabmik officials sought Cortes’ intercession for the release of the balance of the payment for the contract.
This was after the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas ordered that payment for the lampposts be suspended until the investigation on the alleged overpricing is resolved.
But Boholst said the City Government did not deal with the company and let the ombudsman investigate the complaint.
The anti-graft office, in a separate interview, confirmed the loss of the lampposts.
Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol said that Associate Investigator Rod Blazo has completed his assessment and brought back photographs of the site where the lampposts used to stand.
Comment
Apostol said he has asked the Mandaue City Government to comment on the disappearance and is waiting for their reply.
The government bought the lampposts from Fabmik and the Gampik Construction and Development Corp. at P85,000 each. They are among the evidence in an anti-graft case Apostol’s office is investigating.
The investigation is centered on the alleged bidding rules violations committed by certain officials in order to facilitate the supposedly overpriced purchase of the lampposts.
At P85,000 each, the loss incurred with the disappearance of the lampposts is P3.74 million.
Apostol said the incident won’t stump their investigation. In fact, the panel of prosecutors handling the formal investigation has already wrapped up their case and submitted their findings to him for review, he said.
He said he is evaluating it. If he sees no need for revisions, he will send it to Manila for consideration, he said.
“It will be up to the Tanodbayan whether to approve my recommendations,” he said.
No speculations
He declined to speculate if the disappearance of the lampposts was aimed to sabotage their probe.
“Until we find out who took them, we will not be able to determine what the motives were in removing them,” he said.
Boholst said they were forced to take up the “lamppost uprooting” incident with the suppliers last year after they received reports that a group of workers detached the items and loaded these into a waiting truck.
City officials that time did not know that they were Fabmik workers until the City took up the matter in the meeting with the firm and chief legal officer Augustinito Hermoso of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) at the mayor’s office.
Boholst said a Fabmik representative admitted that it was their men who did it, explaining that the 44 lampposts were not covered by the contract.
But Boholst said he was wondering why the lampposts were installed there in the first place, and why these were installed all the way across the bridge to Lapu-Lapu City if these were not for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
He said that Fabmik, in that meeting, proposed to rehabilitate and light all the non-functioning lampposts.
But in exchange, the firm wanted the City to mediate for the release of the uncollected amount in the contract, which was ordered suspended by the ombudsman.
No deal
But the mayor turned down the offer and no deal was made, said Boholst.
He said the mayor is now planning to put up another lamppost, beside the controversial ones, and have it all lighted at the City’s expense.
The anti-graft office found out that 44 lampposts were worth P9.8 million or P224,000 each.
Several officials, including former Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano, incumbent Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza, former DPWH 7 director Roberto Lala and Assistant Directors Marlina Alvizo and Gloria Dindin, as well as Hermoso, are impleaded in the lamppost case.
Also included in the charge are City Engineer Julito Cuizon, Assistant Engineers Fernando Tagaan Jr. and Rogelio Veloso, all of Lapu-Lapu City; and City Engineer Hidelisa Latonio, Assistant Engineers Gregorio Omo, Alfredo Sanchez Sr., Mario Gerolaga and Rosalina Denque, all of Mandaue City.
The money DPWH used to defray the costs incurred in its summit-related procurements came from the Motor Vehicle Users Charge.
For the summit
A Commission on Audit (COA) report said the lamppost case was one of 136 projects, costing a total of P1.525 billion, that that was implemented without public bidding, all in the name of hosting the summit.
Of the projects, 63 were implemented without contracts. These cost P766.749 million.
On the issue of streetlamps, the COA confirmed that the cost, which totaled P54.936 million for 660 units, “were bloated” by as much P35.557 million.
Other findings include how 16 regular road maintenance projects costing P168.320 million were implemented in areas which weren’t even part of the summit and how P30.333 million in road repair work was implemented on private properties.
Tanodbayan Merceditas Gutierrez suspended payment of any amount to the Fabmik and Gampik because of the case.
The order covered the P18-million balance, of a P120-million contract of which P3.1 million retention fee is owed to Fabmik. (OCP/KNR)
